Posts
Words from some great coaches
If you are going to spend any time thinking about how to motivate runners, with something other than your own passion for the sport, it is far better to study the past and present history than it is to reinvent the wheel. My love of running ties nicely into my habit of reading nearly everything, and to this end I’d like to share with you some tidbits of what I have learned from two great running coaches. I think that there two individuals offer applicable tidbits for every runner and you can learn more about these folks at their web sites, or a quick Google search. Phedippidations (one of my favorite running podcasts) has an episode about Arthur Lydiard that is also very well done.
Joe I. Vigil, Ph.D.
As a physiologist and scientist Joe Vigil has risen to the top of his profession and been named coach of the year 14 times. He has coached international athletes and the US Olympic team. He has guided athletes through a number of regimens and set the path for what have become many of the “standards” in coaching runners today.
He has argued that most distance runners have an iron deficiency and that especially goes for women.
He has tailored training stimuli for the individual athlete being training (an advanced method of periodization).
He has advocated run more miles (his athletes run about 140 per week) just as Arthur Lydiard did, so that athletes achieve a tireless state for their chosen race. [remember that how you run them is very important]
He has advocated for more speed workouts in order to boost cardiovascular reserve and respiratory reserve in his athletes.
What might be most interesting however is that despite all of the intensive, specific and well researched science that Dr. Vigil has put into his athletes he has found that the final polish in getting them to a higher state lies in the Zen of personal improvement and that he insists upon this as part of an athlete’s progression to excellence.
As with all members of Team Running USA, we required that all athletes strive to:
1. Improve Personal Relationships
2. Improve Achievement Motivation
3. Improve the Quality of Their Mini and Macro Environments
4. Improve Their Athletic Maturity
5. Show Integrity to Their Value System
6. Display a Commitment to Their Mission
7. Practice Abundance by Giving Back to Their Sport and Team
This is great news for the adult runner because of the fact that even though we can all personally improve, many adults are already quite good at the above seven core ideas of Coach Vigil.
Joe Vigil currently coach for Team USA in California and one of the most impressive athletes in this great team is Olympian Dena Kastor. Vigil describes Dena Kastor, “If I were to operationally define the qualities an athlete must possess to be successful, Deena would epitomize those qualities. She is a great example of mind/body autonomy working in harmony to reach set goals. She truly believes and adheres to the principle of unending improvement and the setting and achieving of even higher goals.”
In interviews and articles his wisdom continues to shine through on how to motivate the inner athlete for performance. Some of his adages, paraphrased, follow here.
Friendship is the thing to cherish and respect the most from the sport you are involved with.
Challenge: you have to make a difference in your team, finding your gift or element of leadership that you can give to those around you. Be an impact person.
The journey: every day you need to accomplish something, incrementally in the process, you have to think and plan how you will incrementally get better.
Courage: you have to have the courage to not do, what you should not do, when the current leads you astray. Be considerate of your teammates and fellow runners and look for chances to pick them up.
Goddess of wisdom vs. the goddess of wealth -
We all have two goddesses that complete for our hearts in life. You cannot chase the money – if you give all your attention to the goddess of wisdom and cherish her most, the goddess of wealth will become jealous and follow you. I think that I like this one the best and anyone who has been caught dancing like no-one is watching is onto this idea. You should be doing the important stuff first, the rest comes along if it will.
Arthur Lydiard
From his beginnings as a cobbler who began running as a means to rid himself of a few pounds, Lydiard’s name became synonymous with great coaches. He began a coaching philosophy in the 1950’s that was tested in his neighborhood in Auckland, New Zealand, with non-athletes and even bypass patients. As Garth Gilmore writes in the preface to Lydiard’s book Running to the Top, (reprinted in numerous languages) “So ingrained is the Lydiard philosophy now, we almost have to force ourselves to recall that before him, the coaching was 180 degrees the other direction. Lydiard was the beginning of a magic era; jogging became acceptable if not godlike…Lydiard was the keystone and he never lets us forget that, as an unschooled layman, he did what physiologists, theorists, and professional coaches were not able to do. He was unsophisticated but he was smart.”
Lydiard enjoyed an equally long list of mentored champions. He has too many keen insights about running to list in a single essay and his imprint on coaching is clearly still felt today. I’ll share a few of those insights here, from his book that which are relevant to your program.
“Athletes need to enjoy their training… You have to hurt yourself a little but at the same time you must enjoy it” he is also the person who gave us the adage “train, don’t strain”. While Lydiard never said it would all be easy for athletes, he emphasized that one should “try to run each day in such a way that (you) would want to run again the next day”
Our sport is largely a solitary one and thus there is a very large mental aspect, where the athlete is driven internally to flourish and move forward in their journey. On this matter Lydiard states, “athletes need to be told why specific aspects of training are being used, both physiologically and mechanically. This is the best form of psychology and motivation to use…The coach should appeal to an athlete’s intelligence, explain clearly what every training session means & what they are trying to achieve. ”
“One of the remarkable aspects of jogging has been the discovery by so many who have taken up running, even late in life, of potential they didn’t know they had to be quite successful athletes”. He follows this through with, “when it comes to endurance, when can develop that in anyone” and if you have not caught my bias yet – I believe him on this one.
I like the change in perspective these guys have and offer it to you so that you can A) understand where I am coming from when I offer you advise about your program B) So that you can begin to explore further some of the great minds in the sport that have a lot of sound advice to offer. See if you can find the influence of these folks in the modern viewpoint of Tom Holland and his book. I feel that in terms of running’s history we are all standing on the shoulders of giants.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Running adaptations
Running adaptations
Let's talk some more about how the body changes and what you can expect and be aware of as your new physicality in this sport begins to develop.
A quick review of running anatomy; Cardiac muscle will adapt first, respiratory systems next, and then body musculature, your foot strength, and then connective tissue. This order of business cannot be put into fast forward nor can the order be changed for most folks. Patience is very important. If the body feels ready in one department it may not be ready in all departments without the requisite mileage. Remember our mantra of “train, don’t strain” that comes from Arthur Lydiard.
Cardiac capability – You heart is quite possibly the hardest working muscle in the body and will adapt very quickly if you gradually increase the training loads. One of the best ways to measure this adaptation is to know your resting pulse and then check your pulse right after finishing a run. Continue to check it every 30 seconds or so following the run to see how quickly it returns to normal resting rate. While you may not always run faster each day – if you see your pulse drop to normal more quickly – you have a great reassurance that your body is working more efficiently. This means you can run more easily and farther without duress. Endurance of this type allows you to have muscles contracting consistently for longer periods of time and this is a benefit for any activity you choose to participate in; Arthur Lydiard trained all types of Olympic athletes for their respective sports by increasing their stamina.
Dr. Philip Maffetone discusses the idea that I posted last week of being able to run the same distance, over each successive month, at a slightly faster or more efficient pace as your cardiac capacity improves. Even if your speed never significantly increases – you ease in performing this effort will improve and this, as well as how fast you return to your baseline heart rate – are good indicators of adaptation.
Proprioception - You ability to “body sense” and kinetically know where you feet are; where they are in relationship to your legs or ankles, what you arms are doing while you run are some basic examples of proprioception. How many of us can stand on one leg with our eyes closed? If you practice this skill over time your body becomes more tuned into where you are in time and space. This skill is developed daily in running as we are falling down & catching ourselves with the next stride. Two attributes to refine in our body awareness while running are; making sure we are projecting most of our energy into moving forward, making sure we are landing on the ground with quiet feet. We have discussed running form in other classes and this kind of gradual awareness of how you are running will greatly enhance how well you run and keep you running farther over successive weeks. Don’t tune out your body – listen to it and focus on what you are experiencing.
Pacing – Can you start slow? Can you run a 13:00 mile, a 12:00 mile and an 11:00 mile? These are skills that take time to develop and are essential to the runner for best tactics while racing and training. After you develop the ability to hold yourself back, and adjust your expectation of running pace - then after eight week or more we’ll begin to develop the ability to slowly speed up over the course of a run. You should manage the tendency to start much faster than you can sustain as a running pace. You can experiment with running different paces and different perceived effort rates to better understand your own body and stride. Later in our program we’ll introduce the ideas of having you train with speed work and hills. For hills we generally run more slowly and for speed work we seek to sustain a sharper pace over a given range/distance to boost cardiac and respiratory function. Tuning into your PE (perceived effort) and comparing that to a stopwatch and or a heart monitor is the fastest way to develop this skill. How many of us can tell how fast the car is moving without looking at the speedometer? You will develop this as a runner over time, the ability to sense how fast you are moving by how much effort you are putting out.
Lung capacity – The body will develop the ability to process more oxygen to your muscles and feed them faster. This happens in both the short and long term. While many folks say that they breathe easier and more effectively in just 4 weeks it has been proven that there is not a known limit to how much aerobic fitness you may develop. Stretching your torso and practicing diaphragmatic breathing may further enhance this ability to move air and process oxygen. The muscles of the diaphragm and the intercostals that expand and contract the ribcage must be exercised and stretched for optimum results.
What is VO2 max? How many liters of oxygen you can process in a minute is a measure of how much work your muscles can perform before oxygen deficit. You can and will see gradual and continual increases in this capacity. To increase VO2 max capacity takes a long time and is best accomplished with some of the advance concepts of speed and hill work mentioned earlier (that we save for further on in your program). This has lasting repercussions for your everyday health and levels of concentration.
Lower leg muscles – Gastrocnemius (calf), Anterior Tibialis (front of tibia/shinbone), and Soleus (deep calf) are muscles that we are working a great deal with strength training and preparing them for distance running. You’ll see differences in muscle composition in these areas.
Stride enhancing muscles - muscles such as the hip flexors, lower abdominals, glutes are used to raise the leg for the next step and to stabilize the hips during the stride and keep us upright and aligned while headed down the road. Strength training and running are changing these muscles too and adapting them to running.
Foot strength – Feet grow throughout our life and then get tougher and stronger (and larger) as we use them. Think of the farmer who is 85 and now his body is smaller than his work wear but he has the large muscular hands of a much bigger man. Your feet will become conditioned to running and all of the smaller muscles associated with balance, ankle strength and supporting the foot grow stronger over many months of running. As long as you spend a great deal of time in the shoes and socks you will use, running and walking the conditions you will see, and traveling the distances you will race – your feet will condition themselves for your chosen event all by themselves. You’ll just need to treat them gently and stretch them occasionally – we’ll talk more about feet in a few weeks.
Fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fibers – fast twitch fibers run mostly off of sugars and are designed for speed. We are born with a certain number of them and while you can wake up what you have been given, to be employed in speed work – you cannot make any more fast-twitch fibers. Those without an abundance of fast twitch fibers will never be Olympic sprinters. Slow twitch fibers burn fat and fire slowly and steadily to easily resist fatigue – they are largely a predetermined quantity too but fast runners can train their fast twitch cells to burn fat and condition them for endurance.
Dr. Maffetone states that the slow twitch or aerobic fibers are the ones that are most resistant to injury, and associated with supporting the joints and that these fibers “contain a significant proportion of the body’s antioxidant activity,” so developing our capacities here is a great investment.
Capillary bed development – Both Jeff Galloway and Arthur Lydiard talk about the body’s ability to increase circulation to the capillary beds as a result of sustained exercise – having great ramification for both muscle endurance and recovery. When you exercise for long periods your body increases blood production and blood volume increases subtly. The cellular need for perfusion during these long runs forces capillary growth into new and developing muscle tissues. This allows greater transport of Oxygen and CO2 throughout the body and has beneficial lasting effects.
In Arthur Lydiard’s book he discusses a study by Swedish researcher Bengt Saltin which compared seven Swedish runners with students from Kenya’s St. Patrick’s High School – a school which has produced six, world cross country champions, many Olympic athletes and four sub 2:10 marathon runners. The research showed that there was a slight advantage among the Kenyans (over the Swedish athletes) for anaerobic capacity of about 3% and each group had equal ratios of slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers. The primary difference that Saltin found was that the Kenyans had more mitochondria per muscle cell and more capillary development in their muscle fibers – nearly twice as many capillaries. Lydiard points to this study and teases out what many coaches, anthropologists and physiologists have said since. That these kids run to school every day, and everywhere they care to go, not at a fast pace but in an aerobic way – often for 100’s of miles a year. Without creating an oxygen deficit and without stressful training programs they simply ambulate naturally so many more miles than other folks that when it does come time to train for competition - their bodies have developed great vascular depth and energy generating capacity due to adaptations any runner might produce.
Mental stamina - while the endorphins come from the brain and are often associated with the “runner’s high” sensation this is only one component of mental process in the runner. Many folks may claim to never see the runner’s high phenomena and yet they reference the seasoned knowledge that all runs have high and low points. They have a large “aches and pains database” that they can reference to understand what will pass and what is something that will cancel their run. They use mental tricks, disassociate from low intensity pain, and compare their current toil to previous challenges. The longer a person runs the more tools that have to motivate themselves further and the higher their tolerance becomes to high intensity exercise. Please do not misunderstand here that - I continue to stress that when it hurts, smile, and if it hurts too much to smile, slow down or stop. Yet over time you do get to know that “hurts so good” feeling and that type of achievement translates well to the rest of your life very well. We’ll have an entire class in mental process in later weeks.
Changes in metabolism – While running should never be used as a diet program - over the long term you will see body mass changes and BMI will be smaller. You burn a large number of calories over the course a week’s running and often this will cause your base metabolic rate to rise. Muscle mass consumes more calories at rest than fat cells do and thus as you develop lower leg and stride enhancing muscle mass you also shift that resting metabolic rate. Running requires 1.7ml of oxygen per meter for every kilogram of body weight. So for example; a man weighing 160lbs (72.5kg) would use 123cc of oxygen for every 3.28 feet he travels. A 120lb woman will only use 92.5cc of oxygen over the same distance – almost a 25% increase in efficiency. When running you start the run on simple sugars (glucose & then glycogen) but as soon as you have begun a regular aerobic rate for running the body begins to synthesize fats and carbohydrates together for muscle fuel. Galloway’s book cites that after 30 minutes of running the body is using fuel that is comprised of more than 50% free fats (free fatty acids and triglycerides). Along with your light strength training routine this aerobic training will leave you with greater definition and changes that most folks see as a positive benefit of an activity they really enjoy.
How long can I expect to develop these adaptations and how long can I keep these adaptations?
Lydiard commented that he continued to see cardiac and respiratory function increase in athletes for years and felt that the greatest gains were often seen in the third year of consistent training. I mention this to emphasize that while you will experience great gains early in your program – you are just getting started on you potential as a runner. Other coaches have taken this gradual progress even further – Joe Vigil coaches Dena Kastor, one of America’s fastest women in history. Vigil worked with Dena over the course of nearly six years and they increased her lung capacity from 72 mls to a VO2 MAX of 81.3 mls, one of the highest ever recorded in an American athlete.
In the book Born to Run, author Christopher McDougall cites analysis done by Dr. Dennis Bramble, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Utah. Dr. Bramble examined finishing times by age division for 2004 New York marathon participants. He found that runners begin to peak after 19 years of age and reach full physical potential at 27 years of age but take heart – yes, they do begin to decline in capacity after age 27 but how long does it take for them to reach the same level of ability that they had at age 19? Sixty-four years of age. Go ahead and read that again slowly because the spell checker is on, I said you would have to be age sixty-four, before a nineteen year old could beat you – provided you were both still training. The statistics on master’s athletes and ultra running confirms this idea and dispels the previous notion that runners only improve for seven years. They may enjoy great capacity and be able to run well for much longer than we previously thought possible. The Tarahumara Indians of Mexico and the Kenyans and Kalahari people run their entire lives, existing without grocery stores ( you have to run for food) and without other means of transport.
Galloway states that muscles can perform the amount of work that they have been accustomed to during the previous 14 days. There is very little loss of adaptations over the short term. If your running is a regular habit you should be able to handle intervals of rest and inactivity without detriment. Loss of some of these running specific attributes occurs slowing over a curve of time. When you are getting back to your program after a long lapse expect to have a short dip in running comfort followed by you feeling more yourself. Folks that have a regular mileage program find that they can sharpen their speed and endurance for a particular race in just 5-8 weeks depending on their physical state. Most runners plan to take a break from running one or two times a year to stay fresh and let the body rest & see no adverse affects from doing so.
What can I do to add depth to these running specific attributes?
We'll continue to talk about this in coming weeks but for now here is some food for thought.
Vary your route by distance, by elevation gain and loss, by surface, by purpose. These all can test and challenge your adaptations and thus enhance your adaptations. Design a four week session for any one attribute and develop it in this mini training period. This tactic periodization, is a regular technique for elite athletes. They pick apart the challenges of their particular race and design a 4 week interval where they develop the needed skills for that challenge. These periods of specific training can follow each other consecutively without substantial loss of ability and allows them to have a manageable training load while sharpening for a particular event.
Add drills that support balance, movement in a different plane, and activate different muscle fibers.
Sports or activities that translate well to running and enhancing your current adaptations: Tai Chi, Yoga, dance, weight training, rowing, Pilates, plyometric exercise and drills, wobble or rocker boards.
Run year round – these skills develop over time and cannot be rushed without facing injury. So apply patience and mileage while keeping in mind that runners see the biggest gains in the third year or more and that many improve over the course of the their lives.
Run with someone. A little competitiveness, watching someone else’s strengths, having external inspiration to push, can all aid in getting to new and higher places with your running.
Barefooting or de-structuring your shoe program is another way to mix it up and we’ll talk about this in greater detail in another class. In the meantime I’ll just tell you that we start not by running but by walking around the house barefoot. This is advanced territory and merits further investigation and discussion before giving it a try.
Let's talk some more about how the body changes and what you can expect and be aware of as your new physicality in this sport begins to develop.
A quick review of running anatomy; Cardiac muscle will adapt first, respiratory systems next, and then body musculature, your foot strength, and then connective tissue. This order of business cannot be put into fast forward nor can the order be changed for most folks. Patience is very important. If the body feels ready in one department it may not be ready in all departments without the requisite mileage. Remember our mantra of “train, don’t strain” that comes from Arthur Lydiard.
Cardiac capability – You heart is quite possibly the hardest working muscle in the body and will adapt very quickly if you gradually increase the training loads. One of the best ways to measure this adaptation is to know your resting pulse and then check your pulse right after finishing a run. Continue to check it every 30 seconds or so following the run to see how quickly it returns to normal resting rate. While you may not always run faster each day – if you see your pulse drop to normal more quickly – you have a great reassurance that your body is working more efficiently. This means you can run more easily and farther without duress. Endurance of this type allows you to have muscles contracting consistently for longer periods of time and this is a benefit for any activity you choose to participate in; Arthur Lydiard trained all types of Olympic athletes for their respective sports by increasing their stamina.
Dr. Philip Maffetone discusses the idea that I posted last week of being able to run the same distance, over each successive month, at a slightly faster or more efficient pace as your cardiac capacity improves. Even if your speed never significantly increases – you ease in performing this effort will improve and this, as well as how fast you return to your baseline heart rate – are good indicators of adaptation.
Proprioception - You ability to “body sense” and kinetically know where you feet are; where they are in relationship to your legs or ankles, what you arms are doing while you run are some basic examples of proprioception. How many of us can stand on one leg with our eyes closed? If you practice this skill over time your body becomes more tuned into where you are in time and space. This skill is developed daily in running as we are falling down & catching ourselves with the next stride. Two attributes to refine in our body awareness while running are; making sure we are projecting most of our energy into moving forward, making sure we are landing on the ground with quiet feet. We have discussed running form in other classes and this kind of gradual awareness of how you are running will greatly enhance how well you run and keep you running farther over successive weeks. Don’t tune out your body – listen to it and focus on what you are experiencing.
Pacing – Can you start slow? Can you run a 13:00 mile, a 12:00 mile and an 11:00 mile? These are skills that take time to develop and are essential to the runner for best tactics while racing and training. After you develop the ability to hold yourself back, and adjust your expectation of running pace - then after eight week or more we’ll begin to develop the ability to slowly speed up over the course of a run. You should manage the tendency to start much faster than you can sustain as a running pace. You can experiment with running different paces and different perceived effort rates to better understand your own body and stride. Later in our program we’ll introduce the ideas of having you train with speed work and hills. For hills we generally run more slowly and for speed work we seek to sustain a sharper pace over a given range/distance to boost cardiac and respiratory function. Tuning into your PE (perceived effort) and comparing that to a stopwatch and or a heart monitor is the fastest way to develop this skill. How many of us can tell how fast the car is moving without looking at the speedometer? You will develop this as a runner over time, the ability to sense how fast you are moving by how much effort you are putting out.
Lung capacity – The body will develop the ability to process more oxygen to your muscles and feed them faster. This happens in both the short and long term. While many folks say that they breathe easier and more effectively in just 4 weeks it has been proven that there is not a known limit to how much aerobic fitness you may develop. Stretching your torso and practicing diaphragmatic breathing may further enhance this ability to move air and process oxygen. The muscles of the diaphragm and the intercostals that expand and contract the ribcage must be exercised and stretched for optimum results.
What is VO2 max? How many liters of oxygen you can process in a minute is a measure of how much work your muscles can perform before oxygen deficit. You can and will see gradual and continual increases in this capacity. To increase VO2 max capacity takes a long time and is best accomplished with some of the advance concepts of speed and hill work mentioned earlier (that we save for further on in your program). This has lasting repercussions for your everyday health and levels of concentration.
Lower leg muscles – Gastrocnemius (calf), Anterior Tibialis (front of tibia/shinbone), and Soleus (deep calf) are muscles that we are working a great deal with strength training and preparing them for distance running. You’ll see differences in muscle composition in these areas.
Stride enhancing muscles - muscles such as the hip flexors, lower abdominals, glutes are used to raise the leg for the next step and to stabilize the hips during the stride and keep us upright and aligned while headed down the road. Strength training and running are changing these muscles too and adapting them to running.
Foot strength – Feet grow throughout our life and then get tougher and stronger (and larger) as we use them. Think of the farmer who is 85 and now his body is smaller than his work wear but he has the large muscular hands of a much bigger man. Your feet will become conditioned to running and all of the smaller muscles associated with balance, ankle strength and supporting the foot grow stronger over many months of running. As long as you spend a great deal of time in the shoes and socks you will use, running and walking the conditions you will see, and traveling the distances you will race – your feet will condition themselves for your chosen event all by themselves. You’ll just need to treat them gently and stretch them occasionally – we’ll talk more about feet in a few weeks.
Fast twitch vs. slow twitch muscle fibers – fast twitch fibers run mostly off of sugars and are designed for speed. We are born with a certain number of them and while you can wake up what you have been given, to be employed in speed work – you cannot make any more fast-twitch fibers. Those without an abundance of fast twitch fibers will never be Olympic sprinters. Slow twitch fibers burn fat and fire slowly and steadily to easily resist fatigue – they are largely a predetermined quantity too but fast runners can train their fast twitch cells to burn fat and condition them for endurance.
Dr. Maffetone states that the slow twitch or aerobic fibers are the ones that are most resistant to injury, and associated with supporting the joints and that these fibers “contain a significant proportion of the body’s antioxidant activity,” so developing our capacities here is a great investment.
Capillary bed development – Both Jeff Galloway and Arthur Lydiard talk about the body’s ability to increase circulation to the capillary beds as a result of sustained exercise – having great ramification for both muscle endurance and recovery. When you exercise for long periods your body increases blood production and blood volume increases subtly. The cellular need for perfusion during these long runs forces capillary growth into new and developing muscle tissues. This allows greater transport of Oxygen and CO2 throughout the body and has beneficial lasting effects.
In Arthur Lydiard’s book he discusses a study by Swedish researcher Bengt Saltin which compared seven Swedish runners with students from Kenya’s St. Patrick’s High School – a school which has produced six, world cross country champions, many Olympic athletes and four sub 2:10 marathon runners. The research showed that there was a slight advantage among the Kenyans (over the Swedish athletes) for anaerobic capacity of about 3% and each group had equal ratios of slow twitch and fast twitch muscle fibers. The primary difference that Saltin found was that the Kenyans had more mitochondria per muscle cell and more capillary development in their muscle fibers – nearly twice as many capillaries. Lydiard points to this study and teases out what many coaches, anthropologists and physiologists have said since. That these kids run to school every day, and everywhere they care to go, not at a fast pace but in an aerobic way – often for 100’s of miles a year. Without creating an oxygen deficit and without stressful training programs they simply ambulate naturally so many more miles than other folks that when it does come time to train for competition - their bodies have developed great vascular depth and energy generating capacity due to adaptations any runner might produce.
Mental stamina - while the endorphins come from the brain and are often associated with the “runner’s high” sensation this is only one component of mental process in the runner. Many folks may claim to never see the runner’s high phenomena and yet they reference the seasoned knowledge that all runs have high and low points. They have a large “aches and pains database” that they can reference to understand what will pass and what is something that will cancel their run. They use mental tricks, disassociate from low intensity pain, and compare their current toil to previous challenges. The longer a person runs the more tools that have to motivate themselves further and the higher their tolerance becomes to high intensity exercise. Please do not misunderstand here that - I continue to stress that when it hurts, smile, and if it hurts too much to smile, slow down or stop. Yet over time you do get to know that “hurts so good” feeling and that type of achievement translates well to the rest of your life very well. We’ll have an entire class in mental process in later weeks.
Changes in metabolism – While running should never be used as a diet program - over the long term you will see body mass changes and BMI will be smaller. You burn a large number of calories over the course a week’s running and often this will cause your base metabolic rate to rise. Muscle mass consumes more calories at rest than fat cells do and thus as you develop lower leg and stride enhancing muscle mass you also shift that resting metabolic rate. Running requires 1.7ml of oxygen per meter for every kilogram of body weight. So for example; a man weighing 160lbs (72.5kg) would use 123cc of oxygen for every 3.28 feet he travels. A 120lb woman will only use 92.5cc of oxygen over the same distance – almost a 25% increase in efficiency. When running you start the run on simple sugars (glucose & then glycogen) but as soon as you have begun a regular aerobic rate for running the body begins to synthesize fats and carbohydrates together for muscle fuel. Galloway’s book cites that after 30 minutes of running the body is using fuel that is comprised of more than 50% free fats (free fatty acids and triglycerides). Along with your light strength training routine this aerobic training will leave you with greater definition and changes that most folks see as a positive benefit of an activity they really enjoy.
How long can I expect to develop these adaptations and how long can I keep these adaptations?
Lydiard commented that he continued to see cardiac and respiratory function increase in athletes for years and felt that the greatest gains were often seen in the third year of consistent training. I mention this to emphasize that while you will experience great gains early in your program – you are just getting started on you potential as a runner. Other coaches have taken this gradual progress even further – Joe Vigil coaches Dena Kastor, one of America’s fastest women in history. Vigil worked with Dena over the course of nearly six years and they increased her lung capacity from 72 mls to a VO2 MAX of 81.3 mls, one of the highest ever recorded in an American athlete.
In the book Born to Run, author Christopher McDougall cites analysis done by Dr. Dennis Bramble, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Utah. Dr. Bramble examined finishing times by age division for 2004 New York marathon participants. He found that runners begin to peak after 19 years of age and reach full physical potential at 27 years of age but take heart – yes, they do begin to decline in capacity after age 27 but how long does it take for them to reach the same level of ability that they had at age 19? Sixty-four years of age. Go ahead and read that again slowly because the spell checker is on, I said you would have to be age sixty-four, before a nineteen year old could beat you – provided you were both still training. The statistics on master’s athletes and ultra running confirms this idea and dispels the previous notion that runners only improve for seven years. They may enjoy great capacity and be able to run well for much longer than we previously thought possible. The Tarahumara Indians of Mexico and the Kenyans and Kalahari people run their entire lives, existing without grocery stores ( you have to run for food) and without other means of transport.
Galloway states that muscles can perform the amount of work that they have been accustomed to during the previous 14 days. There is very little loss of adaptations over the short term. If your running is a regular habit you should be able to handle intervals of rest and inactivity without detriment. Loss of some of these running specific attributes occurs slowing over a curve of time. When you are getting back to your program after a long lapse expect to have a short dip in running comfort followed by you feeling more yourself. Folks that have a regular mileage program find that they can sharpen their speed and endurance for a particular race in just 5-8 weeks depending on their physical state. Most runners plan to take a break from running one or two times a year to stay fresh and let the body rest & see no adverse affects from doing so.
What can I do to add depth to these running specific attributes?
We'll continue to talk about this in coming weeks but for now here is some food for thought.
Vary your route by distance, by elevation gain and loss, by surface, by purpose. These all can test and challenge your adaptations and thus enhance your adaptations. Design a four week session for any one attribute and develop it in this mini training period. This tactic periodization, is a regular technique for elite athletes. They pick apart the challenges of their particular race and design a 4 week interval where they develop the needed skills for that challenge. These periods of specific training can follow each other consecutively without substantial loss of ability and allows them to have a manageable training load while sharpening for a particular event.
Add drills that support balance, movement in a different plane, and activate different muscle fibers.
Sports or activities that translate well to running and enhancing your current adaptations: Tai Chi, Yoga, dance, weight training, rowing, Pilates, plyometric exercise and drills, wobble or rocker boards.
Run year round – these skills develop over time and cannot be rushed without facing injury. So apply patience and mileage while keeping in mind that runners see the biggest gains in the third year or more and that many improve over the course of the their lives.
Run with someone. A little competitiveness, watching someone else’s strengths, having external inspiration to push, can all aid in getting to new and higher places with your running.
Barefooting or de-structuring your shoe program is another way to mix it up and we’ll talk about this in greater detail in another class. In the meantime I’ll just tell you that we start not by running but by walking around the house barefoot. This is advanced territory and merits further investigation and discussion before giving it a try.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Good read on nutrition
As a followup to nutrition I thought that I would post a link to an article discussing Chris Carmichael's coaching of Lance Armstrong. While many have their own opinions about this cyclist it is difficult to argue that he has received world class coaching over the years and his buddy Chris makes a great living doling out sound advice.
That said he is promoting a new book on nutrition and this author reviews some key concepts from this new work. Note the periodization is employed, just as we use this technique for training load and to build a runner toward a peak of training. Also note that the article sites several mini meals that are nutrient dense. Many of these suggestions will even stay down during a run (although I doubt I could eat a bowl of cereal while running, I have enjoyed a bagel and banana on the fly). Take this article as a good supplement and insight toward new nutrition/training tools.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-301--6686-0,00.html?cm_mmc=nutrition-_-2010_06_10-_-nutrition-_-DIET%3a%20Performance%20Fuel
That said he is promoting a new book on nutrition and this author reviews some key concepts from this new work. Note the periodization is employed, just as we use this technique for training load and to build a runner toward a peak of training. Also note that the article sites several mini meals that are nutrient dense. Many of these suggestions will even stay down during a run (although I doubt I could eat a bowl of cereal while running, I have enjoyed a bagel and banana on the fly). Take this article as a good supplement and insight toward new nutrition/training tools.
http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-242-301--6686-0,00.html?cm_mmc=nutrition-_-2010_06_10-_-nutrition-_-DIET%3a%20Performance%20Fuel
Monday, June 7, 2010
Pace & running form
Train your self, not by yourself. You deserve company and the shared effort makes the time pass, as well as enriching your run. But your training has no competitors, it’s your training. Besides, you’ll quickly discover that we all respond differently to this type of training and each person needs their own pace/space to do that. While we are striving to run a race at the end of this training cycle, you should remember that it is a training cycle. What do I mean by that? I mean that you should set up your training so that you love training for training’s sake or running for running sake (I know you do not love racing yet, and maybe you will or will not love racing). We are going to make running a practice for you and to define this I quote Danny Dryer, “If you see running as only as sport, you’re limiting yourself to getting only the physical benefits. Making an activity a practice is a process of self mastery. You are no longer simply practicing that activity; you use it to learn about, understand, and master yourself as well as the activity.” That idea will make you better at nearly anything and it is the way people benefit from meditation, learn a new vocation, or tackle the largest of personal goals. While learning to run will be far from the largest accomplishment you ever achieve – I’d argue along with Mr. Dryer that you stand to lean more than how to keep yourself fit and get ready for a race - if you make your running a practice.
So if we are going to tackle some understanding of pacing and running technique we need to begin with what adapts first in our bodies to running.
Cardio system – in charge of keeping you going it is very versatile and will keep rising to the challenge if you apply changes at an appropriate pace so that it can keep up.
What next? Muscle systems: all of those supporting and accessory muscles will be adapting and with your strengthening and stretching program this happens even faster - just lift two days a week and stretch at least as many days as you run.
What next? Tendons, ligaments and connective tissue adapt the slowest. Keep in mind that this tissue does not get the same blood supply as other parts of your body and while tendons and ligaments are very strong, some of us have firsthand knowledge of how long they take to heal. These tissues need the longest to adapt to any sport, including running, so take your time.
Pace is relative from one runner to the next but pace can tell us a lot about your individual achievements and adaptations as time goes by. It can also tell us a lot about over training, fatigue, or where and when that injury began. Hey, sometimes we learn via hindsight but I hope that you and I can use your training notes to put together a picture of how you are progressing rather than looking back to identify your injury. We want to be proactive.
For all the work you are doing you deserve good notes.
· Writing down a few things about what went well and what didn’t allows you to learn over time what works best for you.
· This same record is a confidence building tool that verifies you are in fact improving and putting in the work.
· Keeping your times and distances as you progress in your training allows you to evaluate progress quantitatively and keeps you from going too fast or over training.
· If you can justify the cost (they are now in the range of $70-$200) a heart monitor is also a great gift/tool for self evaluation that will keep you from running yourself too hard.
If you vary your routes from a list of good ones you can avoid boredom and see new places. Varying routes makes you a stronger runner by varying terrain also. Over time this will make you faster too. You may always ask runners for new routes and good ones to add to your list. Some of our class has already started using a map program online to chart and share routes; allowing you to find new places to run. I am adding additional routes to a website called walkjogrun which is listed on the site as a smartphone compatible product but it also works on your desktop or other device and you can make routes without using your car (the old school method is to drive or bike the route, just to get the distance.) New routes can be motivating and will help you vary your training and pace over time.
Warm up – even if it is only a minute you need to allow the joints and muscles to get moving slowly. Walk 3-5 minutes before your workout or if you cannot do this at least run very slowly for the first 3-5 minutes of you workout and get the groove going. I like my route to start a few blocks from the house and this makes me walk a few minutes before I start running. You also can begin thinking about the pace, goal, technique you’ll use to get it all accomplished.
Your pace should be at a rate which allows you to relax. If you are not relaxed it will be difficult to run with clean, efficient form. Exercise is tough enough, right? So make sure that you travel slowly enough that you can think about technique and begin to relax into that technique. People often think that they need to travel at a particular speed in order to call it running and you will see that we are more concerned about your heart rate and level of perceived effort than your actual ground speed. Of course, heart rate and level of perceived effort are very personalized and that is where you come into the training plan process to really make it work. I can help you plan workouts but you are the speedometer for them and the final say (refer to – “you are an experiment of one”.)
Here are a few things to think about that save energy for each run.
You are headed in a particular direction and we want as many of your body parts as possible headed in that same direction you are traveling. Sounds simple but many of us have varying alignments. So from the top:
Your head should be upright and you can easily see out to the horizon. Think about a long spine and the back of your neck being long as well so that when you take a breath, it goes straight into your lungs. Relax your neck and shoulders by breathing rhymic-ly & deeply.
Please take not of this rhythm and tune into it because over time you will notice that it changes and this breathing rhythm will alter as soon as your pace does. Every engine needs air. Keep your eyes on the horizon and imagine the back of your neck being long and straight. This relaxes shoulders and opens the airway giving all the air a straight route to where it is needed.
Arms should swing naturally and swing straight ahead and back. Do not cross your body with your arms. Smile occasionally to relax neck and shoulders (folks will wonder what you’re up to.) Hands are loose and relaxed, form “O’s” if you need to.
When we get to your hips, think about your pelvis being level and parallel with the ground. What I mean by this is that your standing posture may show a tendency to tilt your hips either forward or back but if you stand up straight and tall you can align the pelvis so that the top of its “bowl” is not tipped fore or aft. In order for this to happen your knees will be very slightly bent and your ankles will be very slightly flexed. You want to ease any strain on your back and allow for easy breathing, again – relax.
Stand up for a minute and while standing straight and tall, close your eyes, now jump up in the air with a little hop and as you land on the ground – freeze. This frozen posture that you land in, is a balanced position (if you fell over just now, you were not balanced and will need to repeat the experiment, sorry) this is a very good basic stance for running.
Another thought on posture. If you are standing still in a balance way as we have discussed above, can you see the tops of your feet? If not you may have your hips too far forward, or ankles flexed too much. Try to have that body all centered over your feet and yet a little flexed. We will demonstrate some of this posture in seminar.
Seek to not land on a straightened leg when you travel down to road, have this flexed knee that you experienced a minute ago. Flex the ankles as well so that you are flowing a bit.
Are you using all of your energy to move forward? Look at the horizon and see if it bounces – it should not. Keep feet low and smoothly moving forward to stop upward travel or change it to forward travel. Arms, feet, knees and other body parts should all be moving forward as best as you are able, so practice this and have a friend look at your running form. Moving economically is all about technique, moving slowly enough to practice and to stay relaxed and it gets easier the more you try it.
We use our lower legs to catch us from falling forward. DO NOT push off the ground with calves and toes while running as this will cause injuries to shins, calves, Achilles tendons and possibly elsewhere. No running on your tip-toes – even when going uphill keep feet are landing smoothly and flat. Think about picking up your heels, peeling them up from off the road starting at the back and finishing towards the toe.
Most of us land on our heels and knees should be bent. Do not take a large or unnaturally big step but think about your feet landing right underneath you or just slightly in front of you. Stand up straight or with a very slight forward lean. Your feet should land on the ground quietly and as you listen for your breathing see if you can hear you feet as well. The elite runners run faster because their “turn-over” is 2-3x what ours is. They do not have a longer stride necessarily but their feet strike the ground 3x more often in a minute than ours. When you hear them go by at that pace it sounds like typing, pitter pat, pitter pat, very quiet.
Now for the effort part – we want to get you a workout and start the cardio system on adapting but we balance that with moving slowly enough to practice technique and to stay relaxed.
Heart rate: You can take your pulse in the morning before getting out of bed to determine your resting heart rate in beats per minute. Use the artery in your wrist or neck (just beside your windpipe) and quietly count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2.
The traditional formula from your book: Your maximum heart rate (MHR) will be 220 minus your age = MHR seeks to never exceed this number.
Your MHR X .60 gives you your training level for 60% effort.
Your MHR x .95 gives you the 95% effort number; the highest heart rate you would reach in race conditions.
Most of our training builds endurance to get us to race distance and so we train at 65-85% of our MHR. This is aerobic training and is the type that offers infinite improvement physiologically.
Your text refers to another way to calculate your heart rate that is slightly different than the old standard which will give you a little higher overall allowable rate see page 112 for the Karvonen formula – there are many ways to calculate but what if you do not have a monitor to track your heart rate? Believe it or not – most pro athletes start the season with a monitor and once the tune into where they are at for the season they leave it at home because they are so good at sensing “perceived effort”.
Perceived effort (PE) is the feeling of “how much of my total energy is being spent running right now?” or how close is this to the fastest I can go (100% effort)
Easy pace= 65-70% PE you can have a complete conversation, feels like a 3-4 on a 10 scale of effort, you may run 3 strides per inhale, 3 strides per exhale
Aerobic pace=75-85% PE you can still speak in sentences, feels like a 5-6 effort on a 10 scale, 2 inhale or 2 inhale-1 exhale per 3 strides. Some call this tempo pace.
Threshold pace= 88-92% PE you - speak a –few-words-at a- time, feels like a 7-8 hard effort, breathing in & out on every stride. Some call this interval pace – you cannot hold this one for very long.
If you feel the need to run faster during a workout save it for the second half of your run. Running the second 50% slightly faster is know as a negative split or a progression run and trains the body for race day by building endurance. If you start out faster in the first half of your run and then tire…you teach the body to slow down instead. Better still, for 90% of your workouts (we’ll talk about speed workouts in a few months) start at the pace you plan to finish at, which means keep a slow steady rhythm that reflects that PE 3-4 or 65-70% or your target heart rate. You’ll not only enjoy the run more but you’ll feel more like you could run the next day.
Most programs wait 8 weeks before adding any hill repeats or speed work on the track – it is better and OK to seek to run negative splits during runs as an easy endurance builder. First you develop a running form that feels natural to you – speed work will later cause your body to subtly improve upon that form.
Aerobic training – the athlete can infinitely develop their potential in this area – it is not yet known what a human’s maximum oxygen handling capacity is… and a number of coaching experts agree that this is the zone where you should spend the majority of your time. The only trouble is that is can be easy to creep out of this zone and into the anaerobic zone without knowing it. Pay attention to your pace, your breathing rhythm and what it “feels like” in terms of perceived effort so that you do not wear yourself down prematurely.
Anaerobic training – the ability to perform work under oxygen deficit - this ability is finite and can only be developed to a point. Training at your near maximum heart rate, at or above threshold pace is anaerobic training. “running—so fast—that—you can—hardly—speak—might—vomit…” is an anaerobic pace and will leave you feeling wasted for your next run.
Here is another great tool that you should consider as a conservative means to keep yourself in the aerobic zone & you’ll need to be A) serious enough to really want to improve – as it requires restraint B) you’ll need a heart monitor and the ability to use grade school math.
from philmaffetone.com
The 180 Formula
To find your maximum aerobic heart rate:
1. Subtract your age from 180 (180 - age).
2. Modify this number by selecting one of the following categories:
1. If you have or are recovering from a major illness (heart disease, any operation, any hospital stay) or on any regular medication, subtract 10.
2. If you have not exercised before, you have exercised but have been injured or are regressing in your running, subtract 5.
3. If you have been exercising for up to two years with no real problems and have not had colds or flu more than once or twice a year, subtract 0.
4. If you have been exercising for more than two years without any problems, making progress in competition without injury, add 5.
For example, if you are 30 years old and reasonably fit you would fall into category 2c: 180 - 30 = 150.This is your maximum aerobic heart rate for base training. For efficient base building, you should train at or below this level throughout your base period. [In this example 150 would be the runners 3-4 pace and the bulk of all their running.]
Why does Dr. Maffetone say this, and why is his number so low - even lower than the traditional method? Less is more. You need to feel motivated to run on the day that you do and over training by going too far, too fast, running somebody else’s pace, running too many days can really leave you unprepared for a good effort on your training day. Dr. Maffetone argues that many of us inadvertently train some in the anaerobic zone, feel stronger or faster than we really are and then fade due to aerobic deficiency syndrome. Dr. Maffetone gives a great analogy for steady progress in your cardio development in his book The Maffetone Method. [If you are] “jogging one mile at a heart rate of 140 bpm, initially in 12 minutes…a month later the same one mile jog at the same rate takes 11.5 minutes; two months later, 10.5 minutes; and three months later, 10 minutes. This would indicate good progress and also implies increased fat burning.” This allows development of your aerobic system and avoids the tendency to go out and try to overdevelop the anaerobic system. Many great coaches have suggested similar strategies but Dr. Maffetone has a great formula to keep you honest and measure the results. I like that for a lot of reasons, our culture thinks that if you’re not out dusting the competition you’re not running fast enough. This is slow, steady, phenomenal progress in cardiac capability and efficiency and will make your daily running seem effortless in the long run.
From another great coach – sometime called the father of jogging, and guide to more Olympic athletes than any other in history, “A distance runner employing a moderate work rate, can get enough oxygen to economically burn fat & glycogen. This enables ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to be rebuilt as fast as it is being used and the trained runner, working aerobically, can continue for several hours – in the case of the elite ultra runner, for day after day of steady aerobic output.
What happens when the runner sprints or shifts his work-rate into the anaerobic phase is that oxygen is no longer absorbed fast enough for the fat & glycogen breakdown. The body will then cheat & break down glycogen without oxygen.” Arthur Lydiard
By using a reasonable pace to develop aerobic capacity and refine good running form you will see gains faster. It is not a fast process, but it is faster in the sense that you will remain uninjured and have the capacity to maintain steady progress. Your running economy is as important as good fitness toward making you a faster more effortless runner. That said, we try to go farther before faster and the father of running states “why” best.
“Most people never realize what their potential is or understand the simple truth that it is based upon their ability to assimilate, transport and use oxygen. If we can appreciate that and then improve that ability, we lay a better foundation on which to build the technical skills and reach a tireless physical & mental state in which we can employ those skills & techniques much better and much longer” Arthur Lydiard
"Try to run each day in such a way that you would want to run again the next day…"
So if we are going to tackle some understanding of pacing and running technique we need to begin with what adapts first in our bodies to running.
Cardio system – in charge of keeping you going it is very versatile and will keep rising to the challenge if you apply changes at an appropriate pace so that it can keep up.
What next? Muscle systems: all of those supporting and accessory muscles will be adapting and with your strengthening and stretching program this happens even faster - just lift two days a week and stretch at least as many days as you run.
What next? Tendons, ligaments and connective tissue adapt the slowest. Keep in mind that this tissue does not get the same blood supply as other parts of your body and while tendons and ligaments are very strong, some of us have firsthand knowledge of how long they take to heal. These tissues need the longest to adapt to any sport, including running, so take your time.
Pace is relative from one runner to the next but pace can tell us a lot about your individual achievements and adaptations as time goes by. It can also tell us a lot about over training, fatigue, or where and when that injury began. Hey, sometimes we learn via hindsight but I hope that you and I can use your training notes to put together a picture of how you are progressing rather than looking back to identify your injury. We want to be proactive.
For all the work you are doing you deserve good notes.
· Writing down a few things about what went well and what didn’t allows you to learn over time what works best for you.
· This same record is a confidence building tool that verifies you are in fact improving and putting in the work.
· Keeping your times and distances as you progress in your training allows you to evaluate progress quantitatively and keeps you from going too fast or over training.
· If you can justify the cost (they are now in the range of $70-$200) a heart monitor is also a great gift/tool for self evaluation that will keep you from running yourself too hard.
If you vary your routes from a list of good ones you can avoid boredom and see new places. Varying routes makes you a stronger runner by varying terrain also. Over time this will make you faster too. You may always ask runners for new routes and good ones to add to your list. Some of our class has already started using a map program online to chart and share routes; allowing you to find new places to run. I am adding additional routes to a website called walkjogrun which is listed on the site as a smartphone compatible product but it also works on your desktop or other device and you can make routes without using your car (the old school method is to drive or bike the route, just to get the distance.) New routes can be motivating and will help you vary your training and pace over time.
Warm up – even if it is only a minute you need to allow the joints and muscles to get moving slowly. Walk 3-5 minutes before your workout or if you cannot do this at least run very slowly for the first 3-5 minutes of you workout and get the groove going. I like my route to start a few blocks from the house and this makes me walk a few minutes before I start running. You also can begin thinking about the pace, goal, technique you’ll use to get it all accomplished.
Your pace should be at a rate which allows you to relax. If you are not relaxed it will be difficult to run with clean, efficient form. Exercise is tough enough, right? So make sure that you travel slowly enough that you can think about technique and begin to relax into that technique. People often think that they need to travel at a particular speed in order to call it running and you will see that we are more concerned about your heart rate and level of perceived effort than your actual ground speed. Of course, heart rate and level of perceived effort are very personalized and that is where you come into the training plan process to really make it work. I can help you plan workouts but you are the speedometer for them and the final say (refer to – “you are an experiment of one”.)
Here are a few things to think about that save energy for each run.
You are headed in a particular direction and we want as many of your body parts as possible headed in that same direction you are traveling. Sounds simple but many of us have varying alignments. So from the top:
Your head should be upright and you can easily see out to the horizon. Think about a long spine and the back of your neck being long as well so that when you take a breath, it goes straight into your lungs. Relax your neck and shoulders by breathing rhymic-ly & deeply.
Please take not of this rhythm and tune into it because over time you will notice that it changes and this breathing rhythm will alter as soon as your pace does. Every engine needs air. Keep your eyes on the horizon and imagine the back of your neck being long and straight. This relaxes shoulders and opens the airway giving all the air a straight route to where it is needed.
Arms should swing naturally and swing straight ahead and back. Do not cross your body with your arms. Smile occasionally to relax neck and shoulders (folks will wonder what you’re up to.) Hands are loose and relaxed, form “O’s” if you need to.
When we get to your hips, think about your pelvis being level and parallel with the ground. What I mean by this is that your standing posture may show a tendency to tilt your hips either forward or back but if you stand up straight and tall you can align the pelvis so that the top of its “bowl” is not tipped fore or aft. In order for this to happen your knees will be very slightly bent and your ankles will be very slightly flexed. You want to ease any strain on your back and allow for easy breathing, again – relax.
Stand up for a minute and while standing straight and tall, close your eyes, now jump up in the air with a little hop and as you land on the ground – freeze. This frozen posture that you land in, is a balanced position (if you fell over just now, you were not balanced and will need to repeat the experiment, sorry) this is a very good basic stance for running.
Another thought on posture. If you are standing still in a balance way as we have discussed above, can you see the tops of your feet? If not you may have your hips too far forward, or ankles flexed too much. Try to have that body all centered over your feet and yet a little flexed. We will demonstrate some of this posture in seminar.
Seek to not land on a straightened leg when you travel down to road, have this flexed knee that you experienced a minute ago. Flex the ankles as well so that you are flowing a bit.
Are you using all of your energy to move forward? Look at the horizon and see if it bounces – it should not. Keep feet low and smoothly moving forward to stop upward travel or change it to forward travel. Arms, feet, knees and other body parts should all be moving forward as best as you are able, so practice this and have a friend look at your running form. Moving economically is all about technique, moving slowly enough to practice and to stay relaxed and it gets easier the more you try it.
We use our lower legs to catch us from falling forward. DO NOT push off the ground with calves and toes while running as this will cause injuries to shins, calves, Achilles tendons and possibly elsewhere. No running on your tip-toes – even when going uphill keep feet are landing smoothly and flat. Think about picking up your heels, peeling them up from off the road starting at the back and finishing towards the toe.
Most of us land on our heels and knees should be bent. Do not take a large or unnaturally big step but think about your feet landing right underneath you or just slightly in front of you. Stand up straight or with a very slight forward lean. Your feet should land on the ground quietly and as you listen for your breathing see if you can hear you feet as well. The elite runners run faster because their “turn-over” is 2-3x what ours is. They do not have a longer stride necessarily but their feet strike the ground 3x more often in a minute than ours. When you hear them go by at that pace it sounds like typing, pitter pat, pitter pat, very quiet.
Now for the effort part – we want to get you a workout and start the cardio system on adapting but we balance that with moving slowly enough to practice technique and to stay relaxed.
Heart rate: You can take your pulse in the morning before getting out of bed to determine your resting heart rate in beats per minute. Use the artery in your wrist or neck (just beside your windpipe) and quietly count for 30 seconds and multiply by 2.
The traditional formula from your book: Your maximum heart rate (MHR) will be 220 minus your age = MHR seeks to never exceed this number.
Your MHR X .60 gives you your training level for 60% effort.
Your MHR x .95 gives you the 95% effort number; the highest heart rate you would reach in race conditions.
Most of our training builds endurance to get us to race distance and so we train at 65-85% of our MHR. This is aerobic training and is the type that offers infinite improvement physiologically.
Your text refers to another way to calculate your heart rate that is slightly different than the old standard which will give you a little higher overall allowable rate see page 112 for the Karvonen formula – there are many ways to calculate but what if you do not have a monitor to track your heart rate? Believe it or not – most pro athletes start the season with a monitor and once the tune into where they are at for the season they leave it at home because they are so good at sensing “perceived effort”.
Perceived effort (PE) is the feeling of “how much of my total energy is being spent running right now?” or how close is this to the fastest I can go (100% effort)
Easy pace= 65-70% PE you can have a complete conversation, feels like a 3-4 on a 10 scale of effort, you may run 3 strides per inhale, 3 strides per exhale
Aerobic pace=75-85% PE you can still speak in sentences, feels like a 5-6 effort on a 10 scale, 2 inhale or 2 inhale-1 exhale per 3 strides. Some call this tempo pace.
Threshold pace= 88-92% PE you - speak a –few-words-at a- time, feels like a 7-8 hard effort, breathing in & out on every stride. Some call this interval pace – you cannot hold this one for very long.
If you feel the need to run faster during a workout save it for the second half of your run. Running the second 50% slightly faster is know as a negative split or a progression run and trains the body for race day by building endurance. If you start out faster in the first half of your run and then tire…you teach the body to slow down instead. Better still, for 90% of your workouts (we’ll talk about speed workouts in a few months) start at the pace you plan to finish at, which means keep a slow steady rhythm that reflects that PE 3-4 or 65-70% or your target heart rate. You’ll not only enjoy the run more but you’ll feel more like you could run the next day.
Most programs wait 8 weeks before adding any hill repeats or speed work on the track – it is better and OK to seek to run negative splits during runs as an easy endurance builder. First you develop a running form that feels natural to you – speed work will later cause your body to subtly improve upon that form.
Aerobic training – the athlete can infinitely develop their potential in this area – it is not yet known what a human’s maximum oxygen handling capacity is… and a number of coaching experts agree that this is the zone where you should spend the majority of your time. The only trouble is that is can be easy to creep out of this zone and into the anaerobic zone without knowing it. Pay attention to your pace, your breathing rhythm and what it “feels like” in terms of perceived effort so that you do not wear yourself down prematurely.
Anaerobic training – the ability to perform work under oxygen deficit - this ability is finite and can only be developed to a point. Training at your near maximum heart rate, at or above threshold pace is anaerobic training. “running—so fast—that—you can—hardly—speak—might—vomit…” is an anaerobic pace and will leave you feeling wasted for your next run.
Here is another great tool that you should consider as a conservative means to keep yourself in the aerobic zone & you’ll need to be A) serious enough to really want to improve – as it requires restraint B) you’ll need a heart monitor and the ability to use grade school math.
from philmaffetone.com
The 180 Formula
To find your maximum aerobic heart rate:
1. Subtract your age from 180 (180 - age).
2. Modify this number by selecting one of the following categories:
1. If you have or are recovering from a major illness (heart disease, any operation, any hospital stay) or on any regular medication, subtract 10.
2. If you have not exercised before, you have exercised but have been injured or are regressing in your running, subtract 5.
3. If you have been exercising for up to two years with no real problems and have not had colds or flu more than once or twice a year, subtract 0.
4. If you have been exercising for more than two years without any problems, making progress in competition without injury, add 5.
For example, if you are 30 years old and reasonably fit you would fall into category 2c: 180 - 30 = 150.This is your maximum aerobic heart rate for base training. For efficient base building, you should train at or below this level throughout your base period. [In this example 150 would be the runners 3-4 pace and the bulk of all their running.]
Why does Dr. Maffetone say this, and why is his number so low - even lower than the traditional method? Less is more. You need to feel motivated to run on the day that you do and over training by going too far, too fast, running somebody else’s pace, running too many days can really leave you unprepared for a good effort on your training day. Dr. Maffetone argues that many of us inadvertently train some in the anaerobic zone, feel stronger or faster than we really are and then fade due to aerobic deficiency syndrome. Dr. Maffetone gives a great analogy for steady progress in your cardio development in his book The Maffetone Method. [If you are] “jogging one mile at a heart rate of 140 bpm, initially in 12 minutes…a month later the same one mile jog at the same rate takes 11.5 minutes; two months later, 10.5 minutes; and three months later, 10 minutes. This would indicate good progress and also implies increased fat burning.” This allows development of your aerobic system and avoids the tendency to go out and try to overdevelop the anaerobic system. Many great coaches have suggested similar strategies but Dr. Maffetone has a great formula to keep you honest and measure the results. I like that for a lot of reasons, our culture thinks that if you’re not out dusting the competition you’re not running fast enough. This is slow, steady, phenomenal progress in cardiac capability and efficiency and will make your daily running seem effortless in the long run.
From another great coach – sometime called the father of jogging, and guide to more Olympic athletes than any other in history, “A distance runner employing a moderate work rate, can get enough oxygen to economically burn fat & glycogen. This enables ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to be rebuilt as fast as it is being used and the trained runner, working aerobically, can continue for several hours – in the case of the elite ultra runner, for day after day of steady aerobic output.
What happens when the runner sprints or shifts his work-rate into the anaerobic phase is that oxygen is no longer absorbed fast enough for the fat & glycogen breakdown. The body will then cheat & break down glycogen without oxygen.” Arthur Lydiard
By using a reasonable pace to develop aerobic capacity and refine good running form you will see gains faster. It is not a fast process, but it is faster in the sense that you will remain uninjured and have the capacity to maintain steady progress. Your running economy is as important as good fitness toward making you a faster more effortless runner. That said, we try to go farther before faster and the father of running states “why” best.
“Most people never realize what their potential is or understand the simple truth that it is based upon their ability to assimilate, transport and use oxygen. If we can appreciate that and then improve that ability, we lay a better foundation on which to build the technical skills and reach a tireless physical & mental state in which we can employ those skills & techniques much better and much longer” Arthur Lydiard
"Try to run each day in such a way that you would want to run again the next day…"
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
A note to sore & discouraged runner
Here is something I wanted to talk about because I got a student question on injury that gave me the feeling something else was under the surface - their motivation had been shaken too. I used the Dear Abby format to keep everything anonymous - I advise a lot of folks - not just in Elkins. Because we only meet on Saturdays it is possible that you do not have your sails lifted as often as you need in getting started and if that is the case, or your injured, or you need help - let me know. I feel like running is the best thing going and I want it to work for you if at all possible. I hope another person's question is a learning experience for others. Let me know.
Dear Carl: I wanted to touch base with you about my knees. After our run the other day, I drove twenty minutes to get home, and it was all I could do to climb 5 steps to get in the house. The next two days were better...and I could go up and down the stairs without hurting. I went for a run today and started off by walking, my knees bothered me and after the first walk run interval I could feel it just wasn't right, so I took a rest. I am I cut out for running?
Dear runner: here are several suggestion to your very big question.
You’re hurt. Maybe not bad, but you need to walk for now and here is why. We rarely get better standing still and when you see an “injury” in the real world (say a bird flies into your window) they get up right away because they know they are cat bait if they do not. Simple. Oftentimes some gentle movement will tell you more about the condition without making it worse and help you loosen up. Remember that stairs are easier walking backwards if your knees and quads are sore. Hold onto the rail! Never-the-less you have heard the prescription before of, activity as tolerated. This is what you need to do along with things like Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation (RICE) and being good to yourself while staying confident that you can do this if you choose.
Whatever is bothering you is difficult to diagnose over the phone (or email) w/o a lot of trial and error but there could be several possibilities to consider right out of the gate that I see a lot (sort of FAQ’s from class) so without making light of your predicament – I’ll use the opportunity to teach a bit and toss around several of the possibilities that may be working on your knees.
You simply ran too far and are suffering Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. We did run a 30 minute workout instead of the prescribed 20 minutes and while ten minutes of TV does not seem like a lot, we added 30% to your workout on a nice day of talking and running slowly. Honestly, maybe we should not have – I apologize for talking more than I was looking at the watch. When I run too long I am sore afterwards too – sometime for many days. I take responsibility for running too far on Saturday and I am sorry, you have my word that I will not do that again.
Your knees, shoes, or gait are bothering you. While I do not know your prior history with the knee ( your doc should always ask you “has this ever bothered you before?”) You may have a historical imbalance that we can work out slowly over time. We would do this with a gentler plan, once you are not sore. Stretching daily, and strengthening the muscles that support the running, including your knees. If your shoes are not new or brand new, they can tweak you the wrong way. When I have a runner in front of me I ask “what has changed since the problem began?”, and begin there. Think about that one and we can get back to it because small changes can have profound effects - good and bad.
I am always sore when I drive after running and this never changes for me. I have to stretch to get my muscle relaxed after a run and driving forces me into a long term, unnatural position, that often makes it tough to rise from the car. Perhaps you have seen me stretching between class breaks in nursing? I just cannot sit for very long anymore – I guess my lower body was made for nursing now. You may have to incorporate a 10 minute cool down and snack time before you drive home. When I ran the Tucson marathon my Dad read the paper for an hour while I stretched, ate, stretched, walked and then I could finally get in his car to head to the hotel.
Anything that hurts for two or more days needs a 2 day break before returning to running. You can always walk your miles, as this uses different muscles and you can self regulate easily. Wear you running shoes while walking to see if they are part of the issue (scientists control as many variable as possible) and to pad your feet/body. If after two days of self-rehab (which would be walking, stretching, using RICE on your affected area) you do not feel better let’s talk again with greater specifics about what is going on and in the meantime schedule with your Health Care Provider (HCP).
Remember that your homework assignment was to let your doctor know what you are doing and why you wish to take on this project. This last part is as important as the first, because I have heard doctors tell people they just cannot run and in my opinion this is hogwash. Most people can “ambulate for exercise” if they choose to – we need to modify our expectations of what running and realize that less is more. We start slow and many of us stay that way, only to just have the fitness experience simply get easier and maybe a little quicker. We do not go out and try to force change on our bodies but let it happen gradually. I would tell you to have the attitude that you can do it if you do it gently and that you advocate for this when you visit you’re HCP.
Of course, there are folks who develop stress fractures, have injuries they have never known about and other conditions that I have no business to diagnose - and you know that is why I am sending you to your HCP. But I know you signed up for class for a reason, and a very good one is that you are making an investment in yourself. Lobby for that and I will too. In the meantime walk, eat right and get back to me with more about your condition after two days rest.
There are several good links on the website and one of them is injured runner where they’ll ask you what hurts, then tell you what it might be, and try to sell you a book. While you may not need the book you gain some more insight about typical running related injury. Please understand that 90% of running related injuries are the result of overuse/overtraining. We’ll spend the next five months talking about all of the ways to over train and again I apologize for showing you one of them on Saturday- running too long. Also read the website entry on stretching and strength. I can tell you first hand that these two components greatly helped my running. I learned about the parts of me that were not adequately trained and works holistically to fix these areas to improve my running. In addition to these two key techniques that were covered this week many folks use other tools as well such as yoga (see Sage Roundtree on the site) and massage to again, open up, relax the body and strive for better symmetry.
We are seeking a new path and while I did say that you can do it, I will never say that it will be entirely easy. I was sincere when I said that I honor and admire the courage it requires to take up something new and challenging. I do try to make it a seamless transition for people and we should ease into it, know that everybody will adapt slowly at their own pace and can choose to triumph in the end. The most unlikely folks have come to fall in love with running over the years and one reason for this; I believe, is that we were built to run. Nobody said how fast or how far- you choose those variables with some guidance.
Misery loves company and if you really want to read a “crash and burn” story while you rest and RICE, try Tom Holland’s tale of his first marathon attempt (pages 9-16) which will cover at least a dozen things you do not want to do. In spite of his debacle, Tom not only went on to write a great book but holistically corrected his problems to run well. His story is one of many and I have heard countless others from people who were not runners (before they started) and are still not going to tell you that they are athletes, even today, when they are wonderful examples of a healthy lifestyle. Why did Tom Holland become a runner after that dismal race day? Because he wanted to, and that is the 1% inspiration that somehow weighs in as almost heavily as the 99% perspiration that he applied afterwards to surmount his goal. Please understand that I will never tell you to “gut it out” like the high school football coach did, because I do not think it is responsible guidance – it is not congruent with an injury free fitness program. But I do wish that you maintain your hopes to be a runner. I do hope you understand that there are a lot more possible solutions than there are reasons to quit. I hope I have begun to illustrate that when your body is new at something you approach the solution to success as a puzzle to solve and that we well may be able to do that together.
Dear Carl: I wanted to touch base with you about my knees. After our run the other day, I drove twenty minutes to get home, and it was all I could do to climb 5 steps to get in the house. The next two days were better...and I could go up and down the stairs without hurting. I went for a run today and started off by walking, my knees bothered me and after the first walk run interval I could feel it just wasn't right, so I took a rest. I am I cut out for running?
Dear runner: here are several suggestion to your very big question.
You’re hurt. Maybe not bad, but you need to walk for now and here is why. We rarely get better standing still and when you see an “injury” in the real world (say a bird flies into your window) they get up right away because they know they are cat bait if they do not. Simple. Oftentimes some gentle movement will tell you more about the condition without making it worse and help you loosen up. Remember that stairs are easier walking backwards if your knees and quads are sore. Hold onto the rail! Never-the-less you have heard the prescription before of, activity as tolerated. This is what you need to do along with things like Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation (RICE) and being good to yourself while staying confident that you can do this if you choose.
Whatever is bothering you is difficult to diagnose over the phone (or email) w/o a lot of trial and error but there could be several possibilities to consider right out of the gate that I see a lot (sort of FAQ’s from class) so without making light of your predicament – I’ll use the opportunity to teach a bit and toss around several of the possibilities that may be working on your knees.
You simply ran too far and are suffering Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. We did run a 30 minute workout instead of the prescribed 20 minutes and while ten minutes of TV does not seem like a lot, we added 30% to your workout on a nice day of talking and running slowly. Honestly, maybe we should not have – I apologize for talking more than I was looking at the watch. When I run too long I am sore afterwards too – sometime for many days. I take responsibility for running too far on Saturday and I am sorry, you have my word that I will not do that again.
Your knees, shoes, or gait are bothering you. While I do not know your prior history with the knee ( your doc should always ask you “has this ever bothered you before?”) You may have a historical imbalance that we can work out slowly over time. We would do this with a gentler plan, once you are not sore. Stretching daily, and strengthening the muscles that support the running, including your knees. If your shoes are not new or brand new, they can tweak you the wrong way. When I have a runner in front of me I ask “what has changed since the problem began?”, and begin there. Think about that one and we can get back to it because small changes can have profound effects - good and bad.
I am always sore when I drive after running and this never changes for me. I have to stretch to get my muscle relaxed after a run and driving forces me into a long term, unnatural position, that often makes it tough to rise from the car. Perhaps you have seen me stretching between class breaks in nursing? I just cannot sit for very long anymore – I guess my lower body was made for nursing now. You may have to incorporate a 10 minute cool down and snack time before you drive home. When I ran the Tucson marathon my Dad read the paper for an hour while I stretched, ate, stretched, walked and then I could finally get in his car to head to the hotel.
Anything that hurts for two or more days needs a 2 day break before returning to running. You can always walk your miles, as this uses different muscles and you can self regulate easily. Wear you running shoes while walking to see if they are part of the issue (scientists control as many variable as possible) and to pad your feet/body. If after two days of self-rehab (which would be walking, stretching, using RICE on your affected area) you do not feel better let’s talk again with greater specifics about what is going on and in the meantime schedule with your Health Care Provider (HCP).
Remember that your homework assignment was to let your doctor know what you are doing and why you wish to take on this project. This last part is as important as the first, because I have heard doctors tell people they just cannot run and in my opinion this is hogwash. Most people can “ambulate for exercise” if they choose to – we need to modify our expectations of what running and realize that less is more. We start slow and many of us stay that way, only to just have the fitness experience simply get easier and maybe a little quicker. We do not go out and try to force change on our bodies but let it happen gradually. I would tell you to have the attitude that you can do it if you do it gently and that you advocate for this when you visit you’re HCP.
Of course, there are folks who develop stress fractures, have injuries they have never known about and other conditions that I have no business to diagnose - and you know that is why I am sending you to your HCP. But I know you signed up for class for a reason, and a very good one is that you are making an investment in yourself. Lobby for that and I will too. In the meantime walk, eat right and get back to me with more about your condition after two days rest.
There are several good links on the website and one of them is injured runner where they’ll ask you what hurts, then tell you what it might be, and try to sell you a book. While you may not need the book you gain some more insight about typical running related injury. Please understand that 90% of running related injuries are the result of overuse/overtraining. We’ll spend the next five months talking about all of the ways to over train and again I apologize for showing you one of them on Saturday- running too long. Also read the website entry on stretching and strength. I can tell you first hand that these two components greatly helped my running. I learned about the parts of me that were not adequately trained and works holistically to fix these areas to improve my running. In addition to these two key techniques that were covered this week many folks use other tools as well such as yoga (see Sage Roundtree on the site) and massage to again, open up, relax the body and strive for better symmetry.
We are seeking a new path and while I did say that you can do it, I will never say that it will be entirely easy. I was sincere when I said that I honor and admire the courage it requires to take up something new and challenging. I do try to make it a seamless transition for people and we should ease into it, know that everybody will adapt slowly at their own pace and can choose to triumph in the end. The most unlikely folks have come to fall in love with running over the years and one reason for this; I believe, is that we were built to run. Nobody said how fast or how far- you choose those variables with some guidance.
Misery loves company and if you really want to read a “crash and burn” story while you rest and RICE, try Tom Holland’s tale of his first marathon attempt (pages 9-16) which will cover at least a dozen things you do not want to do. In spite of his debacle, Tom not only went on to write a great book but holistically corrected his problems to run well. His story is one of many and I have heard countless others from people who were not runners (before they started) and are still not going to tell you that they are athletes, even today, when they are wonderful examples of a healthy lifestyle. Why did Tom Holland become a runner after that dismal race day? Because he wanted to, and that is the 1% inspiration that somehow weighs in as almost heavily as the 99% perspiration that he applied afterwards to surmount his goal. Please understand that I will never tell you to “gut it out” like the high school football coach did, because I do not think it is responsible guidance – it is not congruent with an injury free fitness program. But I do wish that you maintain your hopes to be a runner. I do hope you understand that there are a lot more possible solutions than there are reasons to quit. I hope I have begun to illustrate that when your body is new at something you approach the solution to success as a puzzle to solve and that we well may be able to do that together.
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