Stoshew71 wrote: »

For @TracyeS4

TracyeS4 wrote: »

Interesting... So my goal is to increase my speed while slowly building my distance. I have a plan in mind, but it is different than your advise. Maybe I am messing it up. Can you let me know what you think?

Current:
2-3 miles twice weekly
Average = 3-5 miles/week

Plan:
1 mile 2 times weekly at an increased speed
3 - 4 mile long run once weekly
5-6 miles/week

If you increase your distance slowly, you will force your body to make specific adaptions that will in the end make you a faster runner anyway.

I am not sure what plan you are following, or did you make this plan on your own?


You can incoporate speedwork into your weekly regimine without sacrificing distance but only after you built up a good aerobic base. From your current, it doesn't seem that you built up a good base to do that yet, therefore I would encourage you to concentrate on keeping milage per run and slowly build on your overall distance.

Do you have a busy schedule where you cannot run 3 or 4 times a week?

First allow me to explain the benefits of slowly building up a good aerobic base and why this is important, even when your goal is to increase speed. Then I will explain the concept of how you can incorporate speedwork into your regimine without sacrificing the distance.

First: When you run at what we call a conversational pace (heart rate is about 60-70% of your max), you should be able to hold a conversation relatively easy while running. Running at this rate will stress your metabolic systems enough to make the following adaptions:

1) your heart get's stronger which increases your stroke volume (more blood is delivered to your muscles at each tick) (BTW your current stroke volume will not be any greater than this even if you ran faster- so why run faster if there is no benefit in this area?)
2) mitrochondria in your muscle cells will increase in number and size and come closer to the edge of the cell (mitochondria is where oxygen and sugar is used together to burn fuel- so more mitochondria means more energy and the closer it is in the cell means the easier it will use the oxygen from the blood supply)

Those 2 things happen as a function of the amount of time running (distance) and not speed. This is from Dr. Jack Daniels who is regarded as one of the best (if not the best) running coach in America.

So there is a great benefit to concentrate on increasing distance even if your goal is to run faster. The more miles you can log in a week (even at a slow conversational pace) the better. At how many miles a week should you begin thinking about speedwork? This is a tough answer and depends on your goals (what types of races you want to run, ect). But you will want to spend at least a year building a good aerobic base by consisistently at least 3x a week. 4x a week to include a long run would be even better.

So how to incorporate speed work and what are the benefits?

The first way to start incorporating speedwork and the very basic is what we call fartleks (Sweedish for speed play). BTW, feel free to google the terms and references I list to learn more or read in more detail.

Fartleks are basically unstructured and random periods within a longer slower steady run where you will temporarily pick up the pace for some distance. For example, you are running your usual 3 mile conversational pace route and you decide to that next traffic light up ahead, or that tree up ahead, or mailbox, ect.... I will run hard. When I reach that light/tree/mailbox then I will slow back down to my normal conversational pace until I fully recover. Then I will pick another landmark and repeat. You will always want to start your run with at least a 10-20 minute warmup and end with a 10-20 minute cooldown.
The pace you "pick-up" at and the distance you choose is random. But you should be able to return back to your conversational pace to recover (in other words no stopping or walking). It would no longer be considered fartleks if you had to stop or walk.

As you get more serious into speedwork, there are so many plans and methods that it would be impossible to list here. But the basics are your tempo run, tempo intervals, and repeats.

To understand these you have to understand what your VO2 max & lactate threshold are.
VO2 max is basically the maximum amount of oxygen your body will utilize in a period of time while running. There is a balance between speed and distance when combined together you will reach a point where your body will no longer be able to use any more oxygen. In other words, you can breath it in, but your body will be so taxed out that it won't make any use of it. There are speed workouts that are designed to increase your VO2 max and are usually ran at the threshold. This means, you can run just a little bit faster or farther than your VO2 max and you will hurt harder, but you won't make any more adaptions than if you ran at the threshold. In fact, going beyond it could effect future workouts in a negative way and would actually hurt your overall progress.

Lactate Threshold is the point at which if you were to go just a little bit faster then your blood will start to exponentially increase in lactate. This means that you are no longer depending on aerobic capability (using oxygen to burn fuel) but now on anaerobic capability (where the body is now forced to burn fuel without oxygen). Why is this important? As you burn more energy without oxygen, that fuel is not being used efficiently and lactate and hydrogen ions are being dumped back into your blood. Normally your body is able to clear this lactate and hydrogen ions, but once you run beyond your lactate threshold your body can no longer clear them as fast as your body is producing them. The result is your blood becomes very acidity and forces the runner to stop or slow down big time. Also, your body can only use a stored carb called glycogen (which is limited in supply) as fuel during anaerobic activity. Aerobic activity can use carbs and stored fat as a sorce for energy. You have a virtually unlimited supply of stored fat and you will want to burn that instead of glycogen as a goal. If you happen to run so fast for so far of a distance where you come close to run out of glycogen, you will then reach what they call "bonk" or "hit the wall". A good runner should be able to race at their lactate threshold pace for a good hour before having to slow down or stop.

When you run at your lactate threshold (about 80-88% of your max heart rate or what we call "comfortably hard") your body begins to make specific adaptions that will help increase your lactate threshold. Again, you could run faster or longer, but your body would no longer benefit any better and could effect other workouts within the week negatively.

So what are the benefits of lactate threshold training. You are taxing the body to make use of lactate and clear hydrogen ions as fast as the body can produce it. The longer you run at the pace of your LT, the more efficient your body becomes at this pace. As you progess, that pace that you call your LT will also increase. Therefore you will be able to run faster for longer distances. The benefits of LT training is also a function of time running at that pace and by definition runner any faster won't benefit the runner in this area.

You can do what is called a tempo run. As an eaxmple: You run a warm up at conversational pace for 10-20 minutes, then run at a steady pace at your LT for 20-30 minutes, then cool down again at conversational pace for another 10-20 minutes.

You can run what are called tempo intervals. Say you have your long run where you have 15 miles planned. You run your first 5 miles at conversational pace. Then run the next mile at LT pace then run the next mile back at conversational pace then again at LT pace, ect. Then you run your last 5 miles at conversational pace. You can do the same for shorter runs but the intervals between LT pace and conversational are smaller as with the w/u and c/d.

There are also types of speedwork that tax and forces your body to make specific adaptions of the different muscle twitch fiber types and neurological pathways. Running shorter distances at paces faster than LT or VO2 max with long periods of rest in between is the basis or interval training or repeats. They are designed to increase the ability of your fast twitch muscles. So in interval training you may run 800 meters at your VO2 max or faster, then walk for 1600 meters or until you can fully recover, and repeat that 8 times. You may instead run at this pace for 1 minute or 2 minutes with 5 minutes of walk recover rests in between. Normally what we call "repeats" are intervals that are faster and shorter than "tempo intervals" but the rest period is also longer.

Then elevation adds a different dimention to your running. You can run hill repeats (sprinting up hills during interval training) or running steady pace up a mountain or just incorporating hills into one of your daily runs once or twice a week. Elevation running is a type of resistance workout (such as weight lift training) where you work on building the stregnth of your running muscles. BTW you strength train differently by running up hills faster as opposed to running down hills faster. Both are important. There so many different techniques and training plans for incorporating elevation training that I could not get into specifics here.

So the goal is to eventually get to a point where you can plan your week with different types of runs.

For example:
Monday: 20 min tempo with w/u and c/u for a total of 6 miles. Tue: 3 miles conversational Wed: 8x800m intervals with w/u and c/d plus an extra 2 miles at conversational pace Thurs: cross train Friday easy 2-3 miles Saturday 8 mile long run. Sunday fully rest.

This type of planning is more or less what you are going to get with most of the training plans that are out there. But it is all based around starting with a good aerobic base where you can run at least 3 miles at a steady conversational pace for at least 3 to 4 times a week. The training plan you choose will be determined by your goals (types of races you want to run) what are your primary weaknesses you want to focus on, what your schedule allows (I assume you have a regular job and/or family), and the methodolgy you trust the most. Daniels' method is much different than say Hanson's method, with is different than Hidgon's method or even Jeff Galloway's method. But they are only different in the specifics of implementation and terminology and they all pretty much follow what I describe above. All your modern training plans stem from a concept called "periodization" that was first implemented by New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard back in 1947. He is creditied for fathering the modern era of running.


Kind of long but I hope this helps you out.