Aren't you improving your running? Read these tips..
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fabiomuralha
Posts: 114 Member
Hey all.. just another article that I found.. to the old runners will serve to reminder , to the beginners to know : )
If your running is in a rut, and you feel like you’re just stagnating, you might be looking for some ways to rev up your training. Here are five suggestions to help give you a lift:
1. Speedwork
If you’re just running at the same pace every day, you’re not going to improve much, if any, no matter how far you run. The only way you can run fast in a race is to run fast in training. Fartlek, intervals, tempo runs are all good ways of incorporating speed into your workouts. A few ground rules: don’t do speed workouts more than twice a week, and make your run the day after your speedwork an easy one. Make you sure you stretch well after your workout.
2. Hill Running
One of the best ways to gain both speed and leg strength is hill running. Ideally, you should do a hill running workout as one of your speed workouts every week, or at least every other week. You can do either do lots of sprints on a short, steep slope, or do fewer, but longer, hill repeats on a more lengthy and gradual incline. If you live in an area with flat terrain, your options are either to run on a treadmill with an adjustable incline, or to run steps at a local stadium. However, there’s no substitute for the real thing, so try to find at least one natural slope. The fatigue you induce in your legs during a hill running workout will really pay off when racing.
Tip: Rather than focusing on making it to the top of the hill, focus on surging just as you reach the peak, and accelerating on the ensuing flat. You’ll gain explosive leg strength.
3. Incorporate a Long Run
If you are training for a marathon, no doubtless you are already doing a weekly long run. But even if you’re not, incorporating a once-a-week run that is substantially longer than your daily run can help in several ways. First, it can give you endurance to help you finish strong in shorter-distance races such as 10 km, 21 km and even 5 km. Second, if you’re running for basic fitness or weight loss, a long run of anywhere from 60 to 180 minutes is a fabulous way to burn kilojoules. Lastly, if you run simply as a hobby, it’s a fantastic way to carve out time for yourself to spend contemplating anything you wish.
Tip: Remember, the long run is not a speed workout. Run slower than you normally do, especially at the beginning.
4. Race
If you’ve never entered a road race such as a 5 km or 10 km, you should think about doing so. If you’ve raced in the past, and have got a little lax about competing, now’s the time to get a little more intense and start racing regularly. There’s nothing like the thought of a looming race deadline to get you to take your running more seriously and sharpen up your training.
5. Rest
If your running is truly in a rut, now may be the time to take some time off. It may be as simple as taking a day off completely from running every week. Or it might mean you need to stop running for a few weeks to let your body recover from overtraining or your mind from mental fatigue or boredom. And after you rest, hopefully you’ll come back refreshed and ready to step up your running even more!
source: article by the late David Spence
If your running is in a rut, and you feel like you’re just stagnating, you might be looking for some ways to rev up your training. Here are five suggestions to help give you a lift:
1. Speedwork
If you’re just running at the same pace every day, you’re not going to improve much, if any, no matter how far you run. The only way you can run fast in a race is to run fast in training. Fartlek, intervals, tempo runs are all good ways of incorporating speed into your workouts. A few ground rules: don’t do speed workouts more than twice a week, and make your run the day after your speedwork an easy one. Make you sure you stretch well after your workout.
2. Hill Running
One of the best ways to gain both speed and leg strength is hill running. Ideally, you should do a hill running workout as one of your speed workouts every week, or at least every other week. You can do either do lots of sprints on a short, steep slope, or do fewer, but longer, hill repeats on a more lengthy and gradual incline. If you live in an area with flat terrain, your options are either to run on a treadmill with an adjustable incline, or to run steps at a local stadium. However, there’s no substitute for the real thing, so try to find at least one natural slope. The fatigue you induce in your legs during a hill running workout will really pay off when racing.
Tip: Rather than focusing on making it to the top of the hill, focus on surging just as you reach the peak, and accelerating on the ensuing flat. You’ll gain explosive leg strength.
3. Incorporate a Long Run
If you are training for a marathon, no doubtless you are already doing a weekly long run. But even if you’re not, incorporating a once-a-week run that is substantially longer than your daily run can help in several ways. First, it can give you endurance to help you finish strong in shorter-distance races such as 10 km, 21 km and even 5 km. Second, if you’re running for basic fitness or weight loss, a long run of anywhere from 60 to 180 minutes is a fabulous way to burn kilojoules. Lastly, if you run simply as a hobby, it’s a fantastic way to carve out time for yourself to spend contemplating anything you wish.
Tip: Remember, the long run is not a speed workout. Run slower than you normally do, especially at the beginning.
4. Race
If you’ve never entered a road race such as a 5 km or 10 km, you should think about doing so. If you’ve raced in the past, and have got a little lax about competing, now’s the time to get a little more intense and start racing regularly. There’s nothing like the thought of a looming race deadline to get you to take your running more seriously and sharpen up your training.
5. Rest
If your running is truly in a rut, now may be the time to take some time off. It may be as simple as taking a day off completely from running every week. Or it might mean you need to stop running for a few weeks to let your body recover from overtraining or your mind from mental fatigue or boredom. And after you rest, hopefully you’ll come back refreshed and ready to step up your running even more!
source: article by the late David Spence
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Replies
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I think #5 is the hardest to do!0
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I'm sure it is! ahha Specially for those who love to run! Fortunately, we know that rest is a way of training too and makes our body improve itself..... But isn't easy stay at home looking through the window the people working out .. haha That's torture!0
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Mostly good stuff, but this simply isn't true:If you’re just running at the same pace every day, you’re not going to improve much, if any, no matter how far you run.
This is the definition of aerobic base training, which is an important phase in any periodized training program. Adding slow, base building, aerobic miles WILL make you faster at every distance and this base is essential before starting any kind of speed workouts.0 -
Mostly good stuff, but this simply isn't true:If you’re just running at the same pace every day, you’re not going to improve much, if any, no matter how far you run.
This is the definition of aerobic base training, which is an important phase in any periodized training program. Adding slow, base building, aerobic miles WILL make you faster at every distance and this base is essential before starting any kind of speed workouts.
I can't imagine a base phase of all runs being done at X:XX pace. No recovery, no up-tempo, just "typical run"? Nothing like stagnation in trianing stimuli to lead to burnout.0 -
Mostly good stuff, but this simply isn't true:If you’re just running at the same pace every day, you’re not going to improve much, if any, no matter how far you run.
This is the definition of aerobic base training, which is an important phase in any periodized training program. Adding slow, base building, aerobic miles WILL make you faster at every distance and this base is essential before starting any kind of speed workouts.
I can't imagine a base phase of all runs being done at X:XX pace. No recovery, no up-tempo, just "typical run"? Nothing like stagnation in trianing stimuli to lead to burnout.
It's all a means to an end. Also, I wouldn't say that the runs are all at the same pace, but at the same effort. Some days that will be faster than others, some will be slower. Just depends on how the body has adapted to the previous day's run. For a beginning runner, this is an important aspect of running that they need to understand, you don't need to go faster to get faster.
After some time on their feet, base training phase does change, but not by much. I've been running for close to 10 years and I am getting ready to enter the base phase of my fall marathon build up. Let's take a typical 60 mile week as an example. I will probably average about 9:00 per mile, so I will do 9 hours of running in that week. Yes, I will do a short tempo section and I'll do 10x20 second strides. The rest will be at "easy effort". So, out of that 9 hours, or 540 minutes of running, less than 5% (26 minutes) of it will be at faster than "easy effort". Once base phase is over in about 6 weeks, more workouts with specificity will be introduced.0 -
Mostly good stuff, but this simply isn't true:If you’re just running at the same pace every day, you’re not going to improve much, if any, no matter how far you run.
This is the definition of aerobic base training, which is an important phase in any periodized training program. Adding slow, base building, aerobic miles WILL make you faster at every distance and this base is essential before starting any kind of speed workouts.
I can't imagine a base phase of all runs being done at X:XX pace. No recovery, no up-tempo, just "typical run"? Nothing like stagnation in trianing stimuli to lead to burnout.
It's all a means to an end. Also, I wouldn't say that the runs are all at the same pace, but at the same effort. Some days that will be faster than others, some will be slower. Just depends on how the body has adapted to the previous day's run. For a beginning runner, this is an important aspect of running that they need to understand, you don't need to go faster to get faster.
After some time on their feet, base training phase does change, but not by much. I've been running for close to 10 years and I am getting ready to enter the base phase of my fall marathon build up. Let's take a typical 60 mile week as an example. I will probably average about 9:00 per mile, so I will do 9 hours of running in that week. Yes, I will do a short tempo section and I'll do 10x20 second strides. The rest will be at "easy effort". So, out of that 9 hours, or 540 minutes of running, less than 5% (26 minutes) of it will be at faster than "easy effort". Once base phase is over in about 6 weeks, more workouts with specificity will be introduced.
I'm with Carson. I've been taking a disciplined approach to building an aerobic base and it's paid off for me. I don't have much use for speedwork, but I have to run plenty of nasty hills (6-10% South Dakota) and I do a lot of road/mountain biking (60 mi/wk). I run 3 mi in the AM and another 3 in the PM - sometimes my effort gets me done in 20 min, others can be closer to 30, and sometimes I just go another few miles, all while consistently setting new PRs. Personally, I find that sprinting just aggravates my legs and throws off my effort for the next couple of days.0 -
And I've found that after a period of 3-4 weeks of easy/mild running, I'm ready to mix things up a bit. Most of my base mileage (85-95mpw) is split between two efforts: Recovery and Easy. Recovery is intentionall easy, it requires a determind effort to hold back. Easy is a comfortable pace, but I don't worry about holding back and making it too easy. Instead I go as fast as is comfortable. On top of that there are strides (either 15 seconds at 5000m down to 800m pace or 30 seconds at 10k down to ~1500m pace). Later (but still in what I'd consider base) I'd start to add tempo runs or fast finish/progression runs.
Of course that doesn't even get into the varied opinions on how to pace a long run. I know a lot of plans, especially for beginners, encourage the long run being done at a pace up to 1:30-2:00min/mile slower than a typical pace. Other plans (almost exclusively aimed at more advanced runners) advocate for the occasional long run with at least some portion done at marathon race pace. Still others pace the long run in a manner similar to a typical/easy run.0 -
I've broken all those rules and I've gotten faster.. lol.0
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Well... except for the 'long' run part... most people would consider my daily runs as long runs but I do add at least 8 more miles to it on a Saturday0
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Glad to say that I "got it all!"
Oh, and I don't run more than 4 days per week!
Note: I always do at least one easy run and one long run each week and it took me some time to "deal with them." What do I mean? In the beginning, I was obsessed with my time! I knew that easy runs where supposed to be, well, easy but I would get upset if I wouldn't finish before a certain time/below a certain pace. I now finally learned how to deal with those types of runs! For my easy runs, I don't even bother looking at my Garmin, if not to see how far I've gone (my easy runs are usually 4 to 6 miles long). For my long runs, I was told to go 45" slower than my marathon pace and that's what I learned to stick to (in other words, long runs usually need to be just slightly faster than easy runs). The result? My speed workouts have improved a lot since my body is now trained yet not exhausted because of those easy runs and long runs.
Disclaimer: that's my personal experience-I need o have a plan to stick to. However, I know some people that always only "ran as they felt like" and still qualified for Boston. Naurals? Who knows. They only thing I know and that I will never stop repeating is: all runners are unique and you have to find what works for YOU.0 -
And I've found that after a period of 3-4 weeks of easy/mild running, I'm ready to mix things up a bit. Most of my base mileage (85-95mpw) is split between two efforts: Recovery and Easy. Recovery is intentionall easy, it requires a determind effort to hold back. Easy is a comfortable pace, but I don't worry about holding back and making it too easy. Instead I go as fast as is comfortable. On top of that there are strides (either 15 seconds at 5000m down to 800m pace or 30 seconds at 10k down to ~1500m pace). Later (but still in what I'd consider base) I'd start to add tempo runs or fast finish/progression runs.
Of course that doesn't even get into the varied opinions on how to pace a long run. I know a lot of plans, especially for beginners, encourage the long run being done at a pace up to 1:30-2:00min/mile slower than a typical pace. Other plans (almost exclusively aimed at more advanced runners) advocate for the occasional long run with at least some portion done at marathon race pace. Still others pace the long run in a manner similar to a typical/easy run.
We train about the same way then, all Lydiard based training.
Yeah, the whole "run the long run slower than your normal runs" is a bunch of hooey. If you have to slow down to complete it, then you are running your easy runs too fast. I think the long run should be a combination of easy effort some weeks and then, if training for a specific race (HM or Marathon), some race pace running in the second half of the run, but not to exceed 50% of the run.0 -
Plus those hard long runs are just too much fun to pass up!0
