Posts
An often used adage, sometimes attributed to Lance Armstrong,“pain is temporary, a sense of accomplishment lasts forever” this is a good place to start when we talk about a difficult physical activity.
What are you thinking about when you run? Understanding where you are at mentally when you are performing at your best is paramount to you having the best time out there – that often equates with better performance as well. Ask “How do I best experience this – what thoughts do I have when running is most enjoyable?”
One way to think about the mental process while going down to road is to break it into four “big net” categories – I’ll give you an example of each and what to look out for.
Organizing: You set up your day, plan your vacation or weekend. Just remember to check in once in awhile about the actual running – if you are stressing about the organizing you are doing set a time limit for how long you can do this as you need to relax during your run too – this is your time and you should enjoy it.
Problem solving: You may solve a number of issues on a given run and since running is considered by science to be a right brain activity you may come up with a solution you did not think of before. That said, do not let problem solving crash you running form and again check in once in awhile about how the body is doing before you go back “upstairs” to work it out.
Wandering: “I wonder who lives in that great house and if they have a horse in that pasture…” You get to slow down your thought process and many folks float through thoughts as they float down the road too. This mind-frame is often associated with relaxed running.
Pondering: working out emotions, sorting feelings and perceptions – sometimes folks can emotionally purge during a run. While this is a good thing, you will want to stay tuned into how stress or “running out anger” for example will affect your form or pace and you may need to compartmentalize some emotion or sorting during the run in order to stay in balance.
It would be normal to have several of these states in a given run – you do what works for you. Generally your thinking breaks more cleanly into two categories
Associate vs. disassociate: Elites are able to perform the way they do because they remain focused on the process of running the entire time or their running process is very close to the surface all the time – rarely in the background. We often need a mental break – especially when the going gets tough and we will automatically switch between the A and Da phases.
Example of associative processes: How is my breathing? Is my stride OK? Am I relaxed? Am I running a pace I can sustain? This feels good. My side cramp will go away if I keep breathing deeply…
Example of disassociative process: I wonder what I will eat after this run? That stream looks like it would be good for fishing. I wish I drove that Mustang he is driving. I think Walt Whitman is my favorite poet. I am leaving it all on the track today…
Mental games for performance. You have already come a long way in this program so many of you may very well use the power of positive association to talk your self up. By eliminating negative talk about yourself and your running performance during a run - you give yourself a tremendous advantage. While some will say that this kind of positive thinking is “hooey” the mental aspects of running and athletic performance really cannot be underestimated. You must develop and continue to foster a belief that you can do this and when negative dialogue comes up during a run you must find a way to “change the conversation” with yourself. Create and change your mood, control your effort, improve your form and focus your attention by using this internal dialogue.
Let me give you two quick examples regarding the power of positive thought and how your mental focus will impact your body.
Psychoneuroimmunology is a new field based on the science that the nervous system and the immune system are interconnected. This discipline has discovered a number of ways that the two systems actually have two way communications with each other and direct impacts. Closely controlled studies have also shown that “a person’s aggressive determination to conquer a disease can increase one’s lifespan” (p619 Alcamo’s Fundamentals of Microbiology, 2007) The same studies have shown that behavioral therapies can amplify the body’s response to disease and speed the immune systems response.
This field has also generated interesting research in 2003 that Tai Chi boosts shingles immunity in the elderly. In a 60 person study over 15 weeks the study group did have reduced levels of stress related to their Tai Chi program and were measured as having 50% higher immune memory functions against Shingles virus. The group did not see improvement in physical movement with this low impact form of exercise and the researchers concluded that the anti-stress elements of the activity gave seniors the significant boost in immunity.
The sciences are discovering mind can affect matter, so to speak, and performance athletes at the top levels use this type of knowledge to make the difference every day.
Running has been shown to be a right brain activity, which explains why so many good ideas come from a long run. This also means that your creative and visual brain power can be employed to boost your running performance. Positive thinking, pre-visualization, key words and imagery are all part of your metal process toolbox if you want to be your best on race day.
In May of 1954 a man (Roger Banister) broke the mile in under 4:00 minute mark – a world record that people had said for decades could not be done. Forty-six days later the record was broken again and a second man ran faster than 4 minutes/mile. Coincidence, or having the mental advantage of know knowing that it can be done?
When we talk about perceived efforts in pacing (as we did during last seminar) there is an acknowledgment to a “central governor” in the brain. This works a little bit like a governor in an engine but it is smarter. It is constantly calculating, automatically, how much you have left in the tank vs. how far you have to run along with other equations having to do with the burrito you had for lunch and how hot it is outside. These are important calculations because the central governor seeks to protect you and it will never let you run into the redline to the point that you “blow-up”. While that is a great protective feature, the central governor can go a bit overboard too and tell you that “it is just too hot today” or “you’re too tired” and hold you back from an otherwise great day. Here is an important secret from the physiologists who have closely inspected athletes over the years. In testing athletes at the finish line of a race, even the most demanding races, science has found that the runner is not an empty, burned out shell – unable to run another step. That is right, there is energy left, they are not completely depleted of oxygen or ATP or disabled by acidosis because the central governor has held something back to maintain homeostasis for the runner. Few of us are able to outwit or work around that central governor but it is possible with a few motivational tricks and you will still have that safety keeping you from blowing up – yet you may run better and further with practice.
Tom Holland utilizes a number of great mental tricks that work during a run:
This too shall pass – literally your experience as a runner slowly gives you a database of aches, cramps and complaints to reference and you can then learn which ones you can “ride out” and work with the understanding that everything can change just a few minutes or miles down the road. Many use “good pain” the type that passes, to indicate a strong perceived effort score and accept that feedback while then letting it fade in their attention.
I am feeling good – is a replacement for I am feeling _____________. (insert your own demoralizing term here)
Many runners come up with several “mantras” that motivate them and use these as stress reducing refrains during the toughest times in a run. One very important aspect of this technique is that your “mantra” has to be tested. You need to try it in training when the going gets rough and then seek to perform better when you hear this refrain. Repeating this process over and over establishes a pathway that will cause the nervous system to cue to body for a stronger effort – one that might overrule the desire of the “central governor” to hold you back.
Thinking about your training and your goals and ticking them off as you go – sometime these serve as mile posts to the self promise “I’ll take it one step at a time, I’ll get myself to that next mailbox”
Setting short term goals and focusing on the immediate targets for them is a high performance strategy used by elite athletes. The more difficult the effort - the smaller intervals you must subdivide it into.
It is about how you play the game… Your process is the most important and finishing, winning, your race time – will all take care of itself if processes hold up.
Smile – are you thankful to be upright, alive and given the gift to run? Then you’re still ahead, right?! Give yourself permission to run without a set time goal – improving your psychological endurance & boosting performance.
From Outside online – an article from Abe Streep
“Pain threshold—the point in the shower at which uncomfortably warm turns to painfully hot—is a finite physiological limit. But you can manipulate how much pain you can handle after that point.”
According to Stanford's Dr. Brooks Rohlen, pain tolerance is a
cognitive interpretation of discomfort. This means you can train yourself to tune pain out. The key to rewiring your tolerance? Think positive. Sports psychologists rely on cognitive behavioral therapy, which involves elaborate visualization techniques. But the philosophy is simple. "Think, 'How much can I do despite pain?' " says Rohlen. "I firmly believe you can be in pain and not suffer." Here's one trick to keep you moving: Tap your foot five times and say "Click" with each foot strike. "When you say 'Click,' you're blocking negative thoughts," says Dr. Aynsley Smith, sports psychologist with the Mayo Clinic. Repeat the exercise until the "Click" becomes second nature.”
Raymond Petras PHD is a sport psychologist in Arizona and explains that “when I tell an athlete that they can adjust their pain level by using mental techniques they’re amazed. They often find that their performance increases dramatically”
Long before any competition you need to begin visualizing your performance for that event. Try to create an image for each of the senses – recall that this includes sight, sounds, touch, taste and smell. Imagine the temperature, the lighting, the smells, the sounds etc. Include your process goals and preferred outcomes in that imagery. If you review this on your runs, and at times such as during stretching, and while you drift off to sleep you may find yourself referring to these items when race day comes and thus mentally ingrain the performance you wish to achieve.
Jeff Galloway uses several good tricks as well
Imagine that you lasso the runner who passes you - just slightly faster than your pace – with a rubber band and as the tension builds between you both the band stretches and then begins to pull you closer to the runner in front of you. The time distance continuum and spatial relationships you focus on can rally your pace and push you farther. If the band breaks lasso the next runner with a similar pace.
Imagine and visualize the fatigue escaping from your body through the soles of your feet. Your footprints are damp and glowing from the fatigue left behind when you dump that bad energy and thus with every stride you are gaining energy and feeling a floating sensation.
Feel the fluid you take on at the walk break to be super coolant. When you take a drink the liquid seeps into every inch of you and replaces or absorbs heat from your body. As the steam escapes you feel lighter and begin to lope along more easily.
These simple examples of visual imagery are easy to create for yourself and sometimes the goofier the better as the uplift, or distraction may empower you with positive imagery to go further.
Remember that you should also rehearse the “what if and worst case scenario” things that could happen during your race. By carefully planning for all the scary concerns you may have you can cope well if something should go wrong. Do this on paper one afternoon and then come up with an “antidote” for each concern, then take steps to prepare for each contingency. The best part is that things rarely ever go as poorly as you can imagine so it will all be better than your fears on race day – and you’ll feel very prepared.
Many of us enjoy running with music or conversation to keep us motivated and the MP3 player has possibly been responsible for keeping many folks at the gym altogether. Just like your thought process mid-run, you will still need to redirect you attention to the process of running once in awhile during your workout.
Please remember that you must always face traffic when running and that just as talking on your cell phone is a distraction to successful driving – running with headphones can be very dangerous. Please turn them down if you wear headphones and be careful out there (maybe save music for trails & treadmills) It is against USTF rules to compete while wearing headphones and so you will need to understand that you cannot wear them to run 95% of your races.
Most of you will not be surprised to learn that music is a proven performance enhancer. Studies have shown a 20% performance increase in speed and endurance due to music in the appropriate pace range.
Cadence is a term that applies to the rate of breaths per minute, footfalls per minute and beats of music per minute.
For MUSIC Not too fast (above 165) and not too slow (below 110) for MUSIC. Studies have shown that song tempos of 120 beats per minute are ideal for a 75% (7.5) effort in running.
Here is some coaching, training, general running and music related to running podcast sites on the web to keep your ears busy while you train. Just remember to listen to your body too.
Robert Ullrey Podcasts for running, couch to 5k plan
DJ Steve Boyett Podrunner exercise music for running
Nike Running The Loop, interviews with running elites & tips
Running Times Radio, popular publications digest of interviews and tips
Endurance Planet Podcast, tips, experts interviewed, short story’s on Fridays
Phedippidations Steve Runner’s ramblings, much running related/much not
Adam20 Zen runner, some comedy
Runner round table Q&A for running topics – big conference call
The Onion Radio News – comedy and parody equal to Saturday Night Live
NPR – almost anything you already listen to is being podcast now for free
Friday, July 30, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Road Runner Survival
Our sport is pretty darn safe. We get stronger the longer we run and we develop in a number of positive ways. Barring an overtraining injury or using NSAIDs on race day, or suffering heat stroke in August you stand to run for a long, long time in good health. That said there is this crazy thing called a car on your roads and it can mess up your whole running career. When I refer you to the article (titled Collision Course) in Runners World about road safety I purposefully omit the story of terror that befalls the runner in the article’s prologue as my purpose is not to scare you and you can clearly imagine far worse than I’d ever care to write. But with two months of running under your belt, and now you are exploring new routes as well, we need to pull over and talk about those cars a bit.
To elaborate on what I have said previously and the article does not fully cover, you should have a basic kit with you on the road to take care of emergencies. This kit includes durable ID, money for a phone call, maybe a whistle, and especially as the days begin to shorten again, a way to be seen (reflector, flashlight, blaze) for road runs. While night runs do pose some additional risk you must always consider visibility for your safety and this variable is easily controlled without a shopping spree. You should begin to think about your route and say to yourself when buying running clothes, “can he see me from a half mile away” because that is kind of the minimum distance when he is hurtling towards you at a rate of 88 feet per second (about 60MPH). When you first got behind the wheel, someone spoke to you about being defensive, and that is what we are going to revisit in this lesson from the other side of the windshield.
Automobile vs. runner - You know you are never going to win this one – so no bullfighting please. You should face traffic and take off your headphones but also keep these great ideas from Jeff Galloway in mind.
Watch and prepare to make fast adjustments, many runners have had to dive for the ditch or leap the hedgerow as the motorist dropped their cell phone and reached down to catch it – losing sight of the runner and veering too close.
Plan ahead where you might jump to or which side of the turn offers best visibility
Wear reflective gear, not just at night. Think “can I be seen easily from a half mile away?”
Understand that you cannot understand the driver’s mentality. Drunk, late for church, overtired, maybe they’re texting, or unable to run and resentful of you for getting out and having such a good time. People act like they are anonymous in their cars oftentimes. So WAVE, let them know that you see them and let them see you better, be neighborly and BE the change you wish to see in the world…(you’ll be amazed how many wave back – esp. in WV)
On a separate and related note – never start something. I know it would sometimes seem glorious to jump onto the hood of the car that pulls out in front of you without looking, but this is just another form of road rage. It will not get you anywhere productive and further it may cause your friend to get clipped in a grudge match some weeks later now that the driver does not like runners. Do not even gesture, we have enough trouble getting the respect we deserve out there and so you want to kill them with kindness, not invoke animosity. The flip side of this is to reinforce positive behavior. I stopped to make a special gesture to a woman driver who waited at the edge of a huge puddle, rather than risk splashing me. I said hello and thank you to a couple who re-leashed their dog as I approached. Giving them reinforcement for what we’d like to see helps all my running friends as they repeat these behaviors and teach others to do the same. I do not know much about tennis players because I am seldom around them but many folks know something about runners because they come into contact with you all the time - be an ambassador for our sport and teach them what you want them to learn.
Eye contact – I know that you might be tired after running up a long grade and trying to regain your rhythm but I do seek to make eye contact with every vehicle coming at me (recall I am facing oncoming traffic) to be friendly, but to also understand what they are doing in the car. The article states that one fifth of drivers text and I find this figure to be low, especially with younger operators. GPS or music players are also something that is fiddled with and takes their eyes from the road. I am also regularly experimenting with how long it actually takes for them to acknowledge or see me, and many do not wave until they are mere feet away. We are sharing a space and everyone is more likely to be on their best behavior if we acknowledge each other.
Be an example – what gadgets are you using while running and do they cancel your ability to remain aware of danger? I run with headphones on occasion but I have switched to a type that does not fit into my ear and seal out other noises. I can hear a car behind me and I will raise a hand in friendship as they approach so that they see movement, and they understand that I am aware of them (and predictable). I try not to check my splits on busy roads and I will often assume the motorist wants to go first and stop to wave them on – as if I was a fellow car in another situation. When running with a flashlight I do not shine it in the drivers eyes but let the beam bounce a bit so they know it is a runner. Take charge and set the tone out there and people will treat you as larger than you are.
Know your route – Not just to be aware of dogs or where the shoulder is widest, but on your slow days, assess where there are blind turns, hill crests that will obscure you from a driver’s view, driveways that are tough to see or places where motorists often crowd each other. I run on many roads that are a lane and a half wide and thus I am always looking for the place to jump to and how to pre-plan being more visible. I have pulled off the road and raised my arm overhead when climbing a steep hill crest to ensure the oncoming driver could see I was there. I have stopped and peaked around a corner to listen for cars before proceeding. Caution pays.
Tools
In 2007, nearly 700 cyclists were killed in the Unites States – their sport is significantly more dangerous than ours. This means that in any bike shop or bike supply catalog you’ll find really neat visibility toys that work equally well for running. They need not be expensive either. I have carried a Glow stick as an emergency backup light. Many types of mini headlamps, Maglites or LED flashlights from the auto parts store sell for under $20. Retailers now offer scotchlite adhesive strips for your running gear and these can be applied to any durable item – including your flashlight, and hunting shops offer blaze orange hats or accessories. Road workers and safety official rely on a vest w/ reflectors and these can be purchased for less than $20. They even make clip on reflectors, glowing armbands and handheld flashers. Do not forget that area drivers are always looking to avoid deer, possum and the like so they are already trained to spot movement (your wave) and the more the better. A smile and or recognition will help as well, if you are a friend and neighbor on your route folks will start to look out for you a bit. If you always have something with you to signal with you’ll feel better, even if you never need it.
To elaborate on what I have said previously and the article does not fully cover, you should have a basic kit with you on the road to take care of emergencies. This kit includes durable ID, money for a phone call, maybe a whistle, and especially as the days begin to shorten again, a way to be seen (reflector, flashlight, blaze) for road runs. While night runs do pose some additional risk you must always consider visibility for your safety and this variable is easily controlled without a shopping spree. You should begin to think about your route and say to yourself when buying running clothes, “can he see me from a half mile away” because that is kind of the minimum distance when he is hurtling towards you at a rate of 88 feet per second (about 60MPH). When you first got behind the wheel, someone spoke to you about being defensive, and that is what we are going to revisit in this lesson from the other side of the windshield.
Automobile vs. runner - You know you are never going to win this one – so no bullfighting please. You should face traffic and take off your headphones but also keep these great ideas from Jeff Galloway in mind.
Watch and prepare to make fast adjustments, many runners have had to dive for the ditch or leap the hedgerow as the motorist dropped their cell phone and reached down to catch it – losing sight of the runner and veering too close.
Plan ahead where you might jump to or which side of the turn offers best visibility
Wear reflective gear, not just at night. Think “can I be seen easily from a half mile away?”
Understand that you cannot understand the driver’s mentality. Drunk, late for church, overtired, maybe they’re texting, or unable to run and resentful of you for getting out and having such a good time. People act like they are anonymous in their cars oftentimes. So WAVE, let them know that you see them and let them see you better, be neighborly and BE the change you wish to see in the world…(you’ll be amazed how many wave back – esp. in WV)
On a separate and related note – never start something. I know it would sometimes seem glorious to jump onto the hood of the car that pulls out in front of you without looking, but this is just another form of road rage. It will not get you anywhere productive and further it may cause your friend to get clipped in a grudge match some weeks later now that the driver does not like runners. Do not even gesture, we have enough trouble getting the respect we deserve out there and so you want to kill them with kindness, not invoke animosity. The flip side of this is to reinforce positive behavior. I stopped to make a special gesture to a woman driver who waited at the edge of a huge puddle, rather than risk splashing me. I said hello and thank you to a couple who re-leashed their dog as I approached. Giving them reinforcement for what we’d like to see helps all my running friends as they repeat these behaviors and teach others to do the same. I do not know much about tennis players because I am seldom around them but many folks know something about runners because they come into contact with you all the time - be an ambassador for our sport and teach them what you want them to learn.
Eye contact – I know that you might be tired after running up a long grade and trying to regain your rhythm but I do seek to make eye contact with every vehicle coming at me (recall I am facing oncoming traffic) to be friendly, but to also understand what they are doing in the car. The article states that one fifth of drivers text and I find this figure to be low, especially with younger operators. GPS or music players are also something that is fiddled with and takes their eyes from the road. I am also regularly experimenting with how long it actually takes for them to acknowledge or see me, and many do not wave until they are mere feet away. We are sharing a space and everyone is more likely to be on their best behavior if we acknowledge each other.
Be an example – what gadgets are you using while running and do they cancel your ability to remain aware of danger? I run with headphones on occasion but I have switched to a type that does not fit into my ear and seal out other noises. I can hear a car behind me and I will raise a hand in friendship as they approach so that they see movement, and they understand that I am aware of them (and predictable). I try not to check my splits on busy roads and I will often assume the motorist wants to go first and stop to wave them on – as if I was a fellow car in another situation. When running with a flashlight I do not shine it in the drivers eyes but let the beam bounce a bit so they know it is a runner. Take charge and set the tone out there and people will treat you as larger than you are.
Know your route – Not just to be aware of dogs or where the shoulder is widest, but on your slow days, assess where there are blind turns, hill crests that will obscure you from a driver’s view, driveways that are tough to see or places where motorists often crowd each other. I run on many roads that are a lane and a half wide and thus I am always looking for the place to jump to and how to pre-plan being more visible. I have pulled off the road and raised my arm overhead when climbing a steep hill crest to ensure the oncoming driver could see I was there. I have stopped and peaked around a corner to listen for cars before proceeding. Caution pays.
Tools
In 2007, nearly 700 cyclists were killed in the Unites States – their sport is significantly more dangerous than ours. This means that in any bike shop or bike supply catalog you’ll find really neat visibility toys that work equally well for running. They need not be expensive either. I have carried a Glow stick as an emergency backup light. Many types of mini headlamps, Maglites or LED flashlights from the auto parts store sell for under $20. Retailers now offer scotchlite adhesive strips for your running gear and these can be applied to any durable item – including your flashlight, and hunting shops offer blaze orange hats or accessories. Road workers and safety official rely on a vest w/ reflectors and these can be purchased for less than $20. They even make clip on reflectors, glowing armbands and handheld flashers. Do not forget that area drivers are always looking to avoid deer, possum and the like so they are already trained to spot movement (your wave) and the more the better. A smile and or recognition will help as well, if you are a friend and neighbor on your route folks will start to look out for you a bit. If you always have something with you to signal with you’ll feel better, even if you never need it.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Pelvic & Abdominal Power
Why talk about all of these drills that seem to build supporting muscles without actually running? Well, awhile back I spoke about the idea that we are making running a habit and a Practice and this means that we are trying to shape it into a process oriented thing rather than a goal oriented thing. Further you have heard my bias that we are all made to run and yet when we enter into something new, it will often show us an asymmetry, an imbalance or weakness somewhere in our body as we develop into the new activity – be it gardening or golf. This is why we train the supporting musculature.
Why talk about all of this now? Recall that I said that we could easily overwhelm you with good information that could seem insurmountable to a newcomer. Some people will not need to do core work as they come to a program with developed anatomy from another sport or genetic gifts. Others will find that almost ten weeks into their program they are coming into a few minor glitches and wondering how to hop over them. That is why we take the time now to talk about posture and core strength and balance – because for some it will be the next key and you have to present information as folks are ready to absorb it.
So in a potpourri of topics related to core strength I will begin with a summary of a great article by Dimity McDowell, Runnersworld 3/09 titled Never Get Hurt.
Many common injuries are associated with pelvic instability or lack of strength in this region according to the Center for Endurance Sport at the University of Virginia.
Injuries such as shinsplints, iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, and lower back pain are some injuries that can be addressed at the cause and possibly “pre-habilitated” by doing an abdominal and pelvic workout.
If you develop a stable pelvis that supports the legs below and the torso above; the legs will spin almost effortlessly beneath you while the upper body remains quiet and solid. Think about the Roadrunner in the cartoons as he buzzes away from his attacker.
Many of these exercises will positively affect posture and ease the chance of injury from the road. The core work we are already doing for strength training nicely augments this routine.
Drills are about 20 minutes three times a week and can be done before a run
Video of each exercise is available at
http://www.runnersworld.com/video/0,8052,s6-1-0-5,00.html
Besides your abs many muscles help make up the runners core
Transverse Abdominals – cough or laugh and you’ll feel these muscles which stabilize the spine and pelvis, right above your pelvic bones.
Gluteus medius – this muscle on the side of your glutes minimizes side to side rotation.
Your lower back also plays a key role and you need to think about being as strong as is practical – all the way around your core as a protective cumber-bund and to build posture that promotes more structural running.
Some of my favorite stability drills come from Danny Dryer: in one example he ask you to lean forward against a table edge so that the table touches your leg at mid-thigh and you maintain a slight – whole body- lean forward as if you are a 2x4 from ankle to head. Hold this position for as long as you can and slowly increase your time. This is working the lower abdominals in a way that is similar to the way they support you going down the road.
Working these muscles is done with body weight resistance and can be done w/o equipment. Clean form is a must and you only do what you can muster comfortably, and slowly you increase the repetitions or interval weekly.
Some posture guidelines for thinking about a stable pelvis.
Heavy heel strikers typically see lower back pain down the road. Do not overstride and seek to have feet fall nearly beneath you while maintaining a long and neutral spine. Practice good posture daily and translate this to your running. While it may be hard to think about your stride all the time – you take five minutes to think about it, twice during each run, and from there we build muscle memory for best form that will follow you later in your runs.
Danny Dryer in his book ChiRunning, takes this a step further and talks about where we generate power from. “Efficient movement comes from your core muscles, not the muscles in your legs. We are so used to being told that strong legs are the answer to efficient running that when we are told to relax our legs, it is a huge mind body shift away from how we normally move.” So you ask, “Relax my what?” and my simple answer is that you are asking a very big question – but I know that this is not a sufficient answer. You generate the most power from your core and if you have ever hit a baseball, drove a golf ball, skied bumps in spring, practiced martial arts or rowed a boat then you know what I am talking about. These are core sports and activities that require what the literature calls “upper/lower body separation”. In short that means that sometimes your entire body is moving together and other times you isolate the motion of one half from the other half or top from bottom. So while you do need legs to best achieve maximum performance in these sports you will often isolate the movement of the legs from the core and have each doing different tasks or workloads. The core is where a great deal of Danny’s award winning speed and grace comes from and this allows him to not power through on his legs which are not as efficient.
He goes on to say later in the book that the true test of mastery is in how long you can maintain correct technique – quality reigns supreme over quantity. This should sound familiar to you as well. By working these core muscles we allow you to support yourself structurally for longer stretches of time and this will not just benefit your running but your daily posture, air exchange, and daily well being.
On page 72 of ChiRunning, Dryer presents an example of a great drill that you can do anytime to tune into your own posture habits and work on better form. He calls it the vertical crunch and we practiced the idea of this in running seminar in June. If you place your hands at your own waist line (one on your navel and one on your lower back, each just above the bony prominence, or iliac crest) you should get a sense of their relationship to each other. If you are seeking to use your hands to reference the top of your pelvis; is one hand higher than the other? Are they at the same elevation, front and back? Dryer states that this relationship will offer insight into whether you are using more of your lower back, and compressing discs in the process or bowed forward and tipping your pelvis to the rear. If there is an imbalance here - between your two hands “elevations” there may be less room in between vertebrae and a chance of low back stress. You may struggle to breathe from the diaphragm as we have discussed earlier. He points out that when you bring these hands into alignment, front to rear, that you should only be using abdominal muscles to do this and these are lower abdominals that seldom get used so it may take some time and focus to make it all come together.
Other posture tidbits that I find help runners. Another one from Danny Dryer: to begin each step, think about lifting your feet off the ground from the heel – this helps recruit muscles from the back of the body in your running stride.
More training guidelines to prevent injury
Your longest run should not be more than half of your weekly total mileage.
The “10% rule” states that total mileage does not increase by more than 10% each week.
If you are limping you have no business running. If the pain is sufficient to cause a limp your stride will create alignment issues that will tear something else loose before the end of your run. You would not drive with one wheel rubbing the wheel-well because you know that the misalignment of the car would throw you into the ditch or give you a flat. In the same way that you would not drive the car with the rubbing tire, do not run when you have pain to the point that you are compensating somewhere, even subtly.
Here is another great running drill that gives you the strong feel of what solid running posture would be like and points to any current weakness you can work on. This comes from the Chi running instructors.
Leveling Your Pelvis
A Killer Exercise to Develop Coordination and Strength
By Scott Smith, ChiRunning Certified Instructor of the Month
(articles about Chi techniques, and a subscription to the newsletter can be found at chirunning.com)
As a ChiRunning Instructor, one of the most important services I can provide is educating a student on coordinating and strengthening the muscles that that are used to level the pelvis. This movement is essential for optimal posture and efficient movement. Whether I am skiing, cycling, running or kayaking, I always draw my strength, balance, and endurance from my pelvic floor/lower abdominal region. Low back pain and tightness can be reduced greatly by recruiting the muscles that level the pelvis, thus signaling the opposing back muscles to release (reciprocal inhibition).
The following rope exercise teaches you how to level your pelvis while moving your legs (engaging your hip flexors), simulating walking or running.
Step 1: Lay on your back with knees bent, heels close to buttocks, toes up and slide a 3/8" to 1/2" rope underneath your low back where the largest gap exists.
Step 2: Flatten your lower back against the rope by pulling your navel to your spine, pinching the rope against the ground. Try to pull the rope out with one hand. Make sure your head, shoulders and tailbone all stay on the floor.
Step 3: Test your starting point: If the rope slips, then do 3 x 30-second holds, 4-5 days per week. When this is mastered with no rope slippage, add movement of the knees up and down while slowly walking your heels away, half an inch at a time until the rope begins slipping. Now back up half an inch and use this as your starting point, doing 3 x 30 knee lifts for 4-5 days per week. Keep advancing heels away from the butt over the next couple months until you can do straight leg raises, with your core engaged, back flat, and no rope slippage.
With practice, this is an excellent way to engage and strengthen your lower abdominals. Good Luck!
Why talk about all of this now? Recall that I said that we could easily overwhelm you with good information that could seem insurmountable to a newcomer. Some people will not need to do core work as they come to a program with developed anatomy from another sport or genetic gifts. Others will find that almost ten weeks into their program they are coming into a few minor glitches and wondering how to hop over them. That is why we take the time now to talk about posture and core strength and balance – because for some it will be the next key and you have to present information as folks are ready to absorb it.
So in a potpourri of topics related to core strength I will begin with a summary of a great article by Dimity McDowell, Runnersworld 3/09 titled Never Get Hurt.
Many common injuries are associated with pelvic instability or lack of strength in this region according to the Center for Endurance Sport at the University of Virginia.
Injuries such as shinsplints, iliotibial (IT) band syndrome, and lower back pain are some injuries that can be addressed at the cause and possibly “pre-habilitated” by doing an abdominal and pelvic workout.
If you develop a stable pelvis that supports the legs below and the torso above; the legs will spin almost effortlessly beneath you while the upper body remains quiet and solid. Think about the Roadrunner in the cartoons as he buzzes away from his attacker.
Many of these exercises will positively affect posture and ease the chance of injury from the road. The core work we are already doing for strength training nicely augments this routine.
Drills are about 20 minutes three times a week and can be done before a run
Video of each exercise is available at
http://www.runnersworld.com/video/0,8052,s6-1-0-5,00.html
Besides your abs many muscles help make up the runners core
Transverse Abdominals – cough or laugh and you’ll feel these muscles which stabilize the spine and pelvis, right above your pelvic bones.
Gluteus medius – this muscle on the side of your glutes minimizes side to side rotation.
Your lower back also plays a key role and you need to think about being as strong as is practical – all the way around your core as a protective cumber-bund and to build posture that promotes more structural running.
Some of my favorite stability drills come from Danny Dryer: in one example he ask you to lean forward against a table edge so that the table touches your leg at mid-thigh and you maintain a slight – whole body- lean forward as if you are a 2x4 from ankle to head. Hold this position for as long as you can and slowly increase your time. This is working the lower abdominals in a way that is similar to the way they support you going down the road.
Working these muscles is done with body weight resistance and can be done w/o equipment. Clean form is a must and you only do what you can muster comfortably, and slowly you increase the repetitions or interval weekly.
Some posture guidelines for thinking about a stable pelvis.
Heavy heel strikers typically see lower back pain down the road. Do not overstride and seek to have feet fall nearly beneath you while maintaining a long and neutral spine. Practice good posture daily and translate this to your running. While it may be hard to think about your stride all the time – you take five minutes to think about it, twice during each run, and from there we build muscle memory for best form that will follow you later in your runs.
Danny Dryer in his book ChiRunning, takes this a step further and talks about where we generate power from. “Efficient movement comes from your core muscles, not the muscles in your legs. We are so used to being told that strong legs are the answer to efficient running that when we are told to relax our legs, it is a huge mind body shift away from how we normally move.” So you ask, “Relax my what?” and my simple answer is that you are asking a very big question – but I know that this is not a sufficient answer. You generate the most power from your core and if you have ever hit a baseball, drove a golf ball, skied bumps in spring, practiced martial arts or rowed a boat then you know what I am talking about. These are core sports and activities that require what the literature calls “upper/lower body separation”. In short that means that sometimes your entire body is moving together and other times you isolate the motion of one half from the other half or top from bottom. So while you do need legs to best achieve maximum performance in these sports you will often isolate the movement of the legs from the core and have each doing different tasks or workloads. The core is where a great deal of Danny’s award winning speed and grace comes from and this allows him to not power through on his legs which are not as efficient.
He goes on to say later in the book that the true test of mastery is in how long you can maintain correct technique – quality reigns supreme over quantity. This should sound familiar to you as well. By working these core muscles we allow you to support yourself structurally for longer stretches of time and this will not just benefit your running but your daily posture, air exchange, and daily well being.
On page 72 of ChiRunning, Dryer presents an example of a great drill that you can do anytime to tune into your own posture habits and work on better form. He calls it the vertical crunch and we practiced the idea of this in running seminar in June. If you place your hands at your own waist line (one on your navel and one on your lower back, each just above the bony prominence, or iliac crest) you should get a sense of their relationship to each other. If you are seeking to use your hands to reference the top of your pelvis; is one hand higher than the other? Are they at the same elevation, front and back? Dryer states that this relationship will offer insight into whether you are using more of your lower back, and compressing discs in the process or bowed forward and tipping your pelvis to the rear. If there is an imbalance here - between your two hands “elevations” there may be less room in between vertebrae and a chance of low back stress. You may struggle to breathe from the diaphragm as we have discussed earlier. He points out that when you bring these hands into alignment, front to rear, that you should only be using abdominal muscles to do this and these are lower abdominals that seldom get used so it may take some time and focus to make it all come together.
Other posture tidbits that I find help runners. Another one from Danny Dryer: to begin each step, think about lifting your feet off the ground from the heel – this helps recruit muscles from the back of the body in your running stride.
More training guidelines to prevent injury
Your longest run should not be more than half of your weekly total mileage.
The “10% rule” states that total mileage does not increase by more than 10% each week.
If you are limping you have no business running. If the pain is sufficient to cause a limp your stride will create alignment issues that will tear something else loose before the end of your run. You would not drive with one wheel rubbing the wheel-well because you know that the misalignment of the car would throw you into the ditch or give you a flat. In the same way that you would not drive the car with the rubbing tire, do not run when you have pain to the point that you are compensating somewhere, even subtly.
Here is another great running drill that gives you the strong feel of what solid running posture would be like and points to any current weakness you can work on. This comes from the Chi running instructors.
Leveling Your Pelvis
A Killer Exercise to Develop Coordination and Strength
By Scott Smith, ChiRunning Certified Instructor of the Month
(articles about Chi techniques, and a subscription to the newsletter can be found at chirunning.com)
As a ChiRunning Instructor, one of the most important services I can provide is educating a student on coordinating and strengthening the muscles that that are used to level the pelvis. This movement is essential for optimal posture and efficient movement. Whether I am skiing, cycling, running or kayaking, I always draw my strength, balance, and endurance from my pelvic floor/lower abdominal region. Low back pain and tightness can be reduced greatly by recruiting the muscles that level the pelvis, thus signaling the opposing back muscles to release (reciprocal inhibition).
The following rope exercise teaches you how to level your pelvis while moving your legs (engaging your hip flexors), simulating walking or running.
Step 1: Lay on your back with knees bent, heels close to buttocks, toes up and slide a 3/8" to 1/2" rope underneath your low back where the largest gap exists.
Step 2: Flatten your lower back against the rope by pulling your navel to your spine, pinching the rope against the ground. Try to pull the rope out with one hand. Make sure your head, shoulders and tailbone all stay on the floor.
Step 3: Test your starting point: If the rope slips, then do 3 x 30-second holds, 4-5 days per week. When this is mastered with no rope slippage, add movement of the knees up and down while slowly walking your heels away, half an inch at a time until the rope begins slipping. Now back up half an inch and use this as your starting point, doing 3 x 30 knee lifts for 4-5 days per week. Keep advancing heels away from the butt over the next couple months until you can do straight leg raises, with your core engaged, back flat, and no rope slippage.
With practice, this is an excellent way to engage and strengthen your lower abdominals. Good Luck!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
The Mix workout
Why do we do this training program stuff?
Arthur Lydiard is one of the fathers of the running movement who was a New Zealander of modest origin that used keen intuition and mileage based testing to produce great gains in humans of average athletic ability & also in that process, coach more Olympic champions than any other coach.
While gains are hard won over time the runner needs patience above nearly all else in order to see their greatest personal advancements. They also need a varied workout to expand beyond their base potential. This is largely due to the idea that aerobic capacity is not limited the way anaerobic capacity is - workload under oxygen deprivation can be expanded but has finite and tested limits.
Lydiard coined the adage “train, don’t strain” as a way to promote intense and profound development of aerobic capacity and thus stood the world on its head - as his athletes ran over-distance to the point that they would never tire in competition. Yet he started them slowly and gradually increased the loads to get these results. Much of his work is the foundation that modern coaching is based upon.
He also said that the athlete needs to know why something works and must be told the benefit of training. Not prone to dogma or pure didactic methods – athletes were better driven by understanding the methods. I personally think that this idea aids motivation as well. The FIRST program does a good job of summing up a few of the elements of the why/how equation for us.
Workout types for training - it will not let me put a table in here(argh)
Track repeats Tempo runs Long runs
Track repeats: Purpose: Improve speed, VO2, economy
Intensity: Race pace, PE 8
Duration : Very short sessions mixed into a run
Tempo runs: Purpose: Improve endurance, raise lactate threshold
Intensity: PE 6-7
Duration : One per week, mid-distance run
Negative split run
Long runs: Purpose: Improve aerobic metabolism, endurance
Duration : PE 3-4, 90 sec./mile slower than race pace
Duration : One per week, LSD
VO2 is our maximal oxygen consumption and the ability to use this effectively. Maximal oxygen consumption is often related to “the size of the engine” you are working with at the time. A runner with a high VO2 score can run faster, longer. Folks typically score between 40-80 (ml/kg/minute). Research shows that this score can increase by 20% using endurance and interval training.
Lactate threshold is a measure of metabolic fitness. Lactate is produced when you are working anaerobically. How well your body can perform at a steady state where it is producing lactate but able to process and remove this metabolic waste without cramping or feeling miserable is your lactate threshold. Many runners might reach Lactate threshold after running 30 minutes at 60% of their MHR, while an elite runner may not reach Lactate threshold until after running 30 or more minutes at 95% of MHR. Tempo runs introduce a little bit of this anaerobic work gradually and thus slowly raise our Lactate threshold and ability to metabolize lactate waste.
Aerobic capacity is increased by all of these workout types as capillary development builds, heart and lung function increases and you body adapts to the workload being requested. Any rate of travel that gets you into PE 4 and above (65% of MHR) will quickly develop your aerobic capacity and first you develop the distance you can run, while speed comes afterwards as you are able to handle greater loads and are more efficient.
Our version of track work will allow for you to ease into speed work and what it feels like. Remember when you started running and how good it felt to get the walk break? Maybe they still feels good ;-) Well now we’ll introduce a dose of running faster and the result of that is that the regular running will feel good – kinda like the walk break did. It will also allow you to gently rev the engine and build the speed, economy and VO2 capability slowly w/o injury. Later you can try longer repeats and shorter rest intervals (shorten recover time by 15 seconds) to really build this capacity. Many folks come to love track work & it does make you fast. Unlike the name however, it need not occur on a track. If you have already measured a distance you can do your speed work anywhere. We’ll only do speed work one time each week.
AI or aerobic intervals will be sessions where you push the pace and are breathing harder (maybe PE 7) and then you follow this with slow running to allow your tachometer to come down and you are ready to resume your regular pace. Your speed play never leaves you gasping for breath but is a steady, faster-for-you effort. Try to think about that feeling you had as a kid where it was fun to feel yourself accelerate across the playground. You start with one or two and build the number of them over the coming weeks.
GP or gentle pickups are about you learning to drive up the pace and hold it there for 100 yards. You will run it up to about PE 8-9 and then gradually decelerate. You get to walk the recovery phase of these until you feel like running (maybe 90 seconds) your regular pace again. Again we’ll start with just one or two and we are giving you the sensation of “…so this is what it feels like to really get myself going fast”
Our Tempo Runs are speed work also but allow for a slow steady push of the pace. Faster running is necessary in order to improve endurance and lactate threshold. The negative splits workout allows this while slowly exposing you to higher lactate levels. Run your second half of the chosen route 5-10 seconds/mile faster than the first half. By stepping it up in the back half you lower your overall pace, finish strong and train your body to finish strong. Additionally, you get experience with faster running, just a little more challenging than what your base mileage runs are. These runs feel “comfortably hard”. You may feel like walking 10 minutes after these runs to help flush lactate from your muscles.
Our long runs are just that – measured in miles rather than time - you can go as slow as you need to and walk for 60 seconds after every mile if you need to as well. But staying out longer is the cornerstone of any strong distance program. This is the workout you may not skip – or do so at your own peril when the “rubber meets the road”. You run slower than the race pace because you are avoiding injury (none of us can race every week) and are seeking to build up endurance and oxygen utilization. We can do that at a PE 3-4 effort and simply extend the time on our feet. We have to condition and over prepare the muscles, joints and feet for the race effort. Additionally the Long Slow Distance (LSD) run burns calories like crazy and gets you used to being out there and in the groove. If I plan to run a 5k race in 40 minutes then by running LSD runs that far exceeds that time (even if they are shorter runs than 5k) I can acclimatize my body to the effects of being on the course that long. All the body systems need that experience of being upright and moving for at least as long as my goal race time, slow is good for this reason as well.
We run over distance to help accomplish several goals.
· Giving you the confidence that you can indeed run your distance
· Develop aerobic capacity and endurance so your race feels easier
· Allow muscles, joints and feet time to acclimatize to the workload
· It is easier to do than you think if you “train, don’t strain” and then these longer runs becomes a regular means of high calorie burning cardio-fitness for you to use year round.
We run the mix workout as soon as your body is ready so that you develop more tools in your tool-bag for more effortless and injury free running. The body prefers the variety and you are better motivated by a mix routine. Lydiard felt strongly that even when you are not training for a race – you will benefit from working on your speed and your aerobic capacity year round. Patience must again be emphasized – many coaches state that a runner improves the most in their third year – as lifetime mileage builds and tissues adapt to running. If you provide variety and recovery into your training there is no reason to expect that you will not continue to improve across your running career.
Lydiard was very big into hill training. His runners came from modest means as well and without the advantage of being “professional runners” they could not afford gym memberships and working a day job meant that they had a limited time to train. Lydiard proved that hills were as good as weightlifting for developing lean muscle mass in his athletes and this training offered “specificity” as well in that they were running up the hills; lots and lots of hills. New research has shown that strength training with weights can and does develop lean muscle mass which A) makes you faster, B) deflects the impact to joints in the aging runner, C) provides for a more balanced physique that moves efficiently down the road with fewer opportunities for injury. The idea is not to build bulk but to balance the body and particularly to strengthen the core muscles that support the legs back and pelvis when running. If you choose to add hills to your routine that is a good thing but do not overdo it. Give yourself just a hill or two each week, practice of the race course or something casual. No hill repeats for now. You must practice good running form with hills in order to prevent injury.
Heels down, no running on your toes and no pushing off of the trailing leg
Small strides to help with the effort of raising the leading leg
Slow down your pace and look up the hill with a long back of the neck so that you are taking in air
Run with an upright posture and use your arms to help you get up that hill
A class on hills is upcoming – take it easy for now.
New research on intervals has just been published and covered by Runners World. The thing I love about the study is that it works with the athletes’ feel for things (getting you to listen to your body) and that it has a kernel of Arthur Lydiard’s training philosophy in it. Andrew Edwards (an exercise physiologist and former British 400-meter hurdle star) of James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, has coined the term "perceived readiness." His study asked a group of trained athletes to complete interval workouts and the study focused on time to start the next interval, which was broken down into 3 distinct groups. The first group waited until their HR was at 130 beats per minute. The second group took the same time for recovery as the repeat took (in this study about 3:18). The third group took the time that they felt they needed before they could crank out another interval at 90% effort. Group one was thrashed from these workouts with the shortest recovery time between intervals, higher overall heart rates for the workout, slower repeats and feeling worse. The second and third groups were much more similar in results but the third group that began the next interval when they felt they could generate 90% effort again (the perceived readiness group) was quicker to start the next interval, ran nearly the fastest repeats, had the lowest overall heart rates for this workout, and felt better when the workout was completed. In other words they did not feel thrashed and yet their workout did not take as long to complete and they were nearly as fast. In the perceived readiness group their bodies were able to limit the rest interval and push a bit more on the whole without breaking the machine. Very cool stuff, and similar to Lydiard’s attitude of not counting the number of repeats his athletes did, but rather asking them to stop just before they felt they were going to diminish in their training performance. While this is an early study – keep this concept in mind when you take your turn with speed workouts and I hope we’ll see more about this in future research.
Arthur Lydiard is one of the fathers of the running movement who was a New Zealander of modest origin that used keen intuition and mileage based testing to produce great gains in humans of average athletic ability & also in that process, coach more Olympic champions than any other coach.
While gains are hard won over time the runner needs patience above nearly all else in order to see their greatest personal advancements. They also need a varied workout to expand beyond their base potential. This is largely due to the idea that aerobic capacity is not limited the way anaerobic capacity is - workload under oxygen deprivation can be expanded but has finite and tested limits.
Lydiard coined the adage “train, don’t strain” as a way to promote intense and profound development of aerobic capacity and thus stood the world on its head - as his athletes ran over-distance to the point that they would never tire in competition. Yet he started them slowly and gradually increased the loads to get these results. Much of his work is the foundation that modern coaching is based upon.
He also said that the athlete needs to know why something works and must be told the benefit of training. Not prone to dogma or pure didactic methods – athletes were better driven by understanding the methods. I personally think that this idea aids motivation as well. The FIRST program does a good job of summing up a few of the elements of the why/how equation for us.
Workout types for training - it will not let me put a table in here(argh)
Track repeats Tempo runs Long runs
Track repeats: Purpose: Improve speed, VO2, economy
Intensity: Race pace, PE 8
Duration : Very short sessions mixed into a run
Tempo runs: Purpose: Improve endurance, raise lactate threshold
Intensity: PE 6-7
Duration : One per week, mid-distance run
Negative split run
Long runs: Purpose: Improve aerobic metabolism, endurance
Duration : PE 3-4, 90 sec./mile slower than race pace
Duration : One per week, LSD
VO2 is our maximal oxygen consumption and the ability to use this effectively. Maximal oxygen consumption is often related to “the size of the engine” you are working with at the time. A runner with a high VO2 score can run faster, longer. Folks typically score between 40-80 (ml/kg/minute). Research shows that this score can increase by 20% using endurance and interval training.
Lactate threshold is a measure of metabolic fitness. Lactate is produced when you are working anaerobically. How well your body can perform at a steady state where it is producing lactate but able to process and remove this metabolic waste without cramping or feeling miserable is your lactate threshold. Many runners might reach Lactate threshold after running 30 minutes at 60% of their MHR, while an elite runner may not reach Lactate threshold until after running 30 or more minutes at 95% of MHR. Tempo runs introduce a little bit of this anaerobic work gradually and thus slowly raise our Lactate threshold and ability to metabolize lactate waste.
Aerobic capacity is increased by all of these workout types as capillary development builds, heart and lung function increases and you body adapts to the workload being requested. Any rate of travel that gets you into PE 4 and above (65% of MHR) will quickly develop your aerobic capacity and first you develop the distance you can run, while speed comes afterwards as you are able to handle greater loads and are more efficient.
Our version of track work will allow for you to ease into speed work and what it feels like. Remember when you started running and how good it felt to get the walk break? Maybe they still feels good ;-) Well now we’ll introduce a dose of running faster and the result of that is that the regular running will feel good – kinda like the walk break did. It will also allow you to gently rev the engine and build the speed, economy and VO2 capability slowly w/o injury. Later you can try longer repeats and shorter rest intervals (shorten recover time by 15 seconds) to really build this capacity. Many folks come to love track work & it does make you fast. Unlike the name however, it need not occur on a track. If you have already measured a distance you can do your speed work anywhere. We’ll only do speed work one time each week.
AI or aerobic intervals will be sessions where you push the pace and are breathing harder (maybe PE 7) and then you follow this with slow running to allow your tachometer to come down and you are ready to resume your regular pace. Your speed play never leaves you gasping for breath but is a steady, faster-for-you effort. Try to think about that feeling you had as a kid where it was fun to feel yourself accelerate across the playground. You start with one or two and build the number of them over the coming weeks.
GP or gentle pickups are about you learning to drive up the pace and hold it there for 100 yards. You will run it up to about PE 8-9 and then gradually decelerate. You get to walk the recovery phase of these until you feel like running (maybe 90 seconds) your regular pace again. Again we’ll start with just one or two and we are giving you the sensation of “…so this is what it feels like to really get myself going fast”
Our Tempo Runs are speed work also but allow for a slow steady push of the pace. Faster running is necessary in order to improve endurance and lactate threshold. The negative splits workout allows this while slowly exposing you to higher lactate levels. Run your second half of the chosen route 5-10 seconds/mile faster than the first half. By stepping it up in the back half you lower your overall pace, finish strong and train your body to finish strong. Additionally, you get experience with faster running, just a little more challenging than what your base mileage runs are. These runs feel “comfortably hard”. You may feel like walking 10 minutes after these runs to help flush lactate from your muscles.
Our long runs are just that – measured in miles rather than time - you can go as slow as you need to and walk for 60 seconds after every mile if you need to as well. But staying out longer is the cornerstone of any strong distance program. This is the workout you may not skip – or do so at your own peril when the “rubber meets the road”. You run slower than the race pace because you are avoiding injury (none of us can race every week) and are seeking to build up endurance and oxygen utilization. We can do that at a PE 3-4 effort and simply extend the time on our feet. We have to condition and over prepare the muscles, joints and feet for the race effort. Additionally the Long Slow Distance (LSD) run burns calories like crazy and gets you used to being out there and in the groove. If I plan to run a 5k race in 40 minutes then by running LSD runs that far exceeds that time (even if they are shorter runs than 5k) I can acclimatize my body to the effects of being on the course that long. All the body systems need that experience of being upright and moving for at least as long as my goal race time, slow is good for this reason as well.
We run over distance to help accomplish several goals.
· Giving you the confidence that you can indeed run your distance
· Develop aerobic capacity and endurance so your race feels easier
· Allow muscles, joints and feet time to acclimatize to the workload
· It is easier to do than you think if you “train, don’t strain” and then these longer runs becomes a regular means of high calorie burning cardio-fitness for you to use year round.
We run the mix workout as soon as your body is ready so that you develop more tools in your tool-bag for more effortless and injury free running. The body prefers the variety and you are better motivated by a mix routine. Lydiard felt strongly that even when you are not training for a race – you will benefit from working on your speed and your aerobic capacity year round. Patience must again be emphasized – many coaches state that a runner improves the most in their third year – as lifetime mileage builds and tissues adapt to running. If you provide variety and recovery into your training there is no reason to expect that you will not continue to improve across your running career.
Lydiard was very big into hill training. His runners came from modest means as well and without the advantage of being “professional runners” they could not afford gym memberships and working a day job meant that they had a limited time to train. Lydiard proved that hills were as good as weightlifting for developing lean muscle mass in his athletes and this training offered “specificity” as well in that they were running up the hills; lots and lots of hills. New research has shown that strength training with weights can and does develop lean muscle mass which A) makes you faster, B) deflects the impact to joints in the aging runner, C) provides for a more balanced physique that moves efficiently down the road with fewer opportunities for injury. The idea is not to build bulk but to balance the body and particularly to strengthen the core muscles that support the legs back and pelvis when running. If you choose to add hills to your routine that is a good thing but do not overdo it. Give yourself just a hill or two each week, practice of the race course or something casual. No hill repeats for now. You must practice good running form with hills in order to prevent injury.
Heels down, no running on your toes and no pushing off of the trailing leg
Small strides to help with the effort of raising the leading leg
Slow down your pace and look up the hill with a long back of the neck so that you are taking in air
Run with an upright posture and use your arms to help you get up that hill
A class on hills is upcoming – take it easy for now.
New research on intervals has just been published and covered by Runners World. The thing I love about the study is that it works with the athletes’ feel for things (getting you to listen to your body) and that it has a kernel of Arthur Lydiard’s training philosophy in it. Andrew Edwards (an exercise physiologist and former British 400-meter hurdle star) of James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, has coined the term "perceived readiness." His study asked a group of trained athletes to complete interval workouts and the study focused on time to start the next interval, which was broken down into 3 distinct groups. The first group waited until their HR was at 130 beats per minute. The second group took the same time for recovery as the repeat took (in this study about 3:18). The third group took the time that they felt they needed before they could crank out another interval at 90% effort. Group one was thrashed from these workouts with the shortest recovery time between intervals, higher overall heart rates for the workout, slower repeats and feeling worse. The second and third groups were much more similar in results but the third group that began the next interval when they felt they could generate 90% effort again (the perceived readiness group) was quicker to start the next interval, ran nearly the fastest repeats, had the lowest overall heart rates for this workout, and felt better when the workout was completed. In other words they did not feel thrashed and yet their workout did not take as long to complete and they were nearly as fast. In the perceived readiness group their bodies were able to limit the rest interval and push a bit more on the whole without breaking the machine. Very cool stuff, and similar to Lydiard’s attitude of not counting the number of repeats his athletes did, but rather asking them to stop just before they felt they were going to diminish in their training performance. While this is an early study – keep this concept in mind when you take your turn with speed workouts and I hope we’ll see more about this in future research.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Rest - why you need it
Our bodies need rest in order to function properly. Does your car engine get stronger if you never turn it off? We get stronger, not during the workout, but when we rest and recover…
Growth hormone is produced when we sleep deeply and at no other time. So being horizontal is when you get to rebuild everything that training is working hard to stress and “tear down”
Bill Bowerman took a technique from Arthur Lydiard and coined the term “tough-easy” for every day that you work hard you need an easy workout to follow-up with. Easy is PE 3-4 and hard is a very long run or anything in the PE 5 & above category. Recall the post on pace and running form talks about PE, perceived effort and where your tachometer should be most of the time.
Masters runners & folks who are no longer acting like they are 20 years old often find they need a day off between workouts. This allows a more full recovery between workouts & thus you get quality workouts every time you go big. Once you are older than 20 you realize it is mostly about quality, isn’t it?
I’ll be referring you to a copy of a great article by Bridget Clark, titled Training Error – Overuse or Under-recovery? from the April 2010 issue of Ultrarunning. Her graphs are worth a thousand words as she explains the body’s response to training stimulus and how many of us will induce another stimulus (running) before we can rebuild, leading to overwhelming our systems and inching closer to the “injury threshold” in the process.
She goes a step further and talks about the idea that cross training, especially strength training, provides a stimulus that is different than running and is also non-load bearing so that the tissues build capacity and recovers better without undue stress.
Does it sound confusing that I would encourage you to exercise and then ask you to take it easy while doing it? Reframe the idea in terms of the law of diminishing returns you already know from the office. When you do not get a vacation from work or a weekend off, you become dull and less fun. Further, if you do not have adequate time to process the challenges at work (rebuild) then you begin to see diminishing returns as well – we push the pace and things begin to get dropped on your plate. Let me quote Bridget Clark, from her Training Error article, “we now have a wealth of research in sports science covering the past 30 years. With the rate of running injuries so prevalent, potential causes have been studied up and down.” She summarizes this body of research by saying, “training error is the only factor that consistently displays a direct cause and effect relationship with running injuries”. She has the doctorate in Physical Therapy, and her argument makes sense intuitively. Sometimes we will suffer what she refers to as a traumatic injury – one example would be me hitting my head on a low limb during a run and causing a goose-egg style welt to appear. The second and much more common injury is overuse, with two studies cited, ten years apart, each showing 70% of runners see these overuse injuries. We simply do not allow enough time for the body to recover and rebuild as stronger before we load it up again. Slow or abrupt degenerative damage results as we spiral toward what Bridget Clark calls injury threshold.
Remember how we talked about the injury cycle? There are 4 distinct phases - all easy to remember and each gets worse.
One: I sprain/tweak my ankle and so it hurts a bit after the run.
Two: I run on it for two weeks as I normally would, without slowing down or doing any “rehab” of the injury and now it hurts during and after the run.
Three: A week after that it hurts before, during and after the run.
Four: Finally it hurts too much to run, and hurts all the time – is this my ankles fault? Am I now meant to run? If you are in my class I think you can answer this question pretty well…
The good news is that you can apply this sports injury model to your overall sense of well being and thus guard against over training. The FIRST program, Dr. Maffetone, and Dr. Tim Noakes in his book all talk about a runner getting progressively more tired, feeling that performance plateaus and then drops, notices that immune system function begins to decline and may even see mood changes or swings in much the same way that extreme stress has been shown to affect people. We should be alert for trends over time and look out for a common acronym in prehospital care called DIC head syndrome. Disoriented, Irritable and Combative. A number of things can cause this and some could be acute problems such as; you could have low blood sugar, could be suffering from the heat, or maybe something more chronic could be overtraining syndrome. Everybody has different physiological set point for this (you are an experiment of one) and it varies depending upon what else is going on in your life as well. It is a fine line for some and gets easier to discern as your “aches and pains” database expands and as you learn more about your training process as journey of minor stressors and growing stronger from each stressor. Tired is natural, while tired with lingering effects and inability to refresh may need intervention. As you might guess, this is much easier to spot in others, outside yourself. Your training log will help you here as well as your running buddies.
Remember when we talked at the beginning about your running log? How you should examine your workouts and they will tell you a great deal about where you and how far you have come? This document can become an important window into how you are doing if you are without a coach or a regular running buddy who can spot your holistic well being. Author Tim Noakes gives a number of suggestions that you may wish to record in your running logbook that extend beyond the idea of mileage, route, shoes worn and time elapsed.
1) How did the run go? We all have a growing “aches and pains database” and this plays a role but on the trend side you want things to get gradually better.
2) What was your effort rating (or PE, perceived effort): If easy workouts feel hard this week, I ask the question “what has changed?”
3) Did you enjoy it – or any part of it? Nearly every run has both good a bad spots and if they do not pass easily out of the bad, I ask the same question as above, or if things clicked – what helped is good information too.
4) You waking pulse rate: I asked you to take a baseline pulse as homework because we want to see improvements and look for spikes in this rate, or a new creep upward, as a sign we must heed.
5) Early morning body weight: This is the best time to get a reading (after the gastrocolic reflex occurs) and this number will fluctuate but we hope that there is not a continued drop over time – a loss of appetite or persistent loss is considered an overtraining sign.
6) Number of hours slept: You know where this is going – get to bed!
7) Heart rate during the workout: This can also tell us about what you are feeling, are you pushing too hard or is it taking more effort to do what was easier to execute two weeks ago? Over time the same route should get a bit faster or easier without increasing heart rate above your regular workout numbers. See the previous lesson about pace to get a Dr. Maffetone recommended pulse rate for your steady state runs.
This kind of data will allow insight toward overtraining trends or on the bright side – when you can bump things up a notch. Many starting out will say “I do not want to bump anything, right now – I am stressed enough!” and that may be true, however 3-4 weeks without changes toward the positive side of the ledger, and no deleterious effects either means that you have hit your plateau at this exertion level and it is time to vary the workload or increase intensity for a new phase. This gradually makes you better at what you are pursuing.
If something hurts for two or more days then take 2 or more days off – simple. During that time stretch, RICE and examine what has changed that would cause the injury – but don’t assume running through it as normal, will be the cure. You will have to use active rest and modify your expectations while learning about the root cause of injury. Here is a great thought, “healing, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature." - W.H. Auden
If you are sick from the neck up – go ahead and run (it may even help) If you are sick from the neck down – consider sitting this one out.
Expect that you’ll need to take better care of yourself and wash your hands more frequently when your mileage drops. Your immune system is cranking at peak capacity when you are running & when mileage drops sometimes the immune system takes a vacation too.
When you are getting strong running performances each week, you can gain 90% of all possible fitness developments with 4 days/week of running. You may get that extra 10% with 5 or more days each week but what you’ll find is that the number of injuries you see in the runner is appreciably higher.
Trouble signs of overtraining
Injury – muscles not allowed to recover well between workouts suffer from stress injury. Failing running form in the tired athlete leads to excessive pounding, favoring something compounds imbalances. Do not become a sport limper or it will get worse somewhere else on your machine!
Sickness – While running stimulates the immune system, too much too soon - or inadequate rest – allows the body to be susceptible to illness or infection – once you are ground down to nothing, illness sets up shop.
Slump – remember that loss or impairment of higher brain function is one way that the body shows early sign of problems. Irritability, restlessness, trouble sleeping, depression and malaise indicate that you need a rest week (decrease in training volume, additional rest days, 8+ hours of sleep nightly)
How much rest? For starters we stay within the 10% rule, so that we rarely increase training load by more than 10% in any week. We also seek to vary the training cycle and get you some rest every four weeks as a means for you to absorb your training. Within that parameter you’ll also need at least one extra minute per night for each mile you train that week. EG: If you run 15 miles in a week, you’ll need 15 extra minutes each night that week. Closer to race time - seek to allow an extra hour of sleep each evening. Olympic Marathoner Ryan Hall is in bed at 9:30pm every night. You do not spend 12 hours a day there, but you get what you need to charge up for your event.
One last resting tip is feet up - allowing time for fluid exchange (assisted by gravity) not only feels great but really speeds recovery. Racers are now using pressure stockings to gain the same benefit while sitting at their desks. Blood return and elevation are great things for tired feet and lower legs.
Growth hormone is produced when we sleep deeply and at no other time. So being horizontal is when you get to rebuild everything that training is working hard to stress and “tear down”
Bill Bowerman took a technique from Arthur Lydiard and coined the term “tough-easy” for every day that you work hard you need an easy workout to follow-up with. Easy is PE 3-4 and hard is a very long run or anything in the PE 5 & above category. Recall the post on pace and running form talks about PE, perceived effort and where your tachometer should be most of the time.
Masters runners & folks who are no longer acting like they are 20 years old often find they need a day off between workouts. This allows a more full recovery between workouts & thus you get quality workouts every time you go big. Once you are older than 20 you realize it is mostly about quality, isn’t it?
I’ll be referring you to a copy of a great article by Bridget Clark, titled Training Error – Overuse or Under-recovery? from the April 2010 issue of Ultrarunning. Her graphs are worth a thousand words as she explains the body’s response to training stimulus and how many of us will induce another stimulus (running) before we can rebuild, leading to overwhelming our systems and inching closer to the “injury threshold” in the process.
She goes a step further and talks about the idea that cross training, especially strength training, provides a stimulus that is different than running and is also non-load bearing so that the tissues build capacity and recovers better without undue stress.
Does it sound confusing that I would encourage you to exercise and then ask you to take it easy while doing it? Reframe the idea in terms of the law of diminishing returns you already know from the office. When you do not get a vacation from work or a weekend off, you become dull and less fun. Further, if you do not have adequate time to process the challenges at work (rebuild) then you begin to see diminishing returns as well – we push the pace and things begin to get dropped on your plate. Let me quote Bridget Clark, from her Training Error article, “we now have a wealth of research in sports science covering the past 30 years. With the rate of running injuries so prevalent, potential causes have been studied up and down.” She summarizes this body of research by saying, “training error is the only factor that consistently displays a direct cause and effect relationship with running injuries”. She has the doctorate in Physical Therapy, and her argument makes sense intuitively. Sometimes we will suffer what she refers to as a traumatic injury – one example would be me hitting my head on a low limb during a run and causing a goose-egg style welt to appear. The second and much more common injury is overuse, with two studies cited, ten years apart, each showing 70% of runners see these overuse injuries. We simply do not allow enough time for the body to recover and rebuild as stronger before we load it up again. Slow or abrupt degenerative damage results as we spiral toward what Bridget Clark calls injury threshold.
Remember how we talked about the injury cycle? There are 4 distinct phases - all easy to remember and each gets worse.
One: I sprain/tweak my ankle and so it hurts a bit after the run.
Two: I run on it for two weeks as I normally would, without slowing down or doing any “rehab” of the injury and now it hurts during and after the run.
Three: A week after that it hurts before, during and after the run.
Four: Finally it hurts too much to run, and hurts all the time – is this my ankles fault? Am I now meant to run? If you are in my class I think you can answer this question pretty well…
The good news is that you can apply this sports injury model to your overall sense of well being and thus guard against over training. The FIRST program, Dr. Maffetone, and Dr. Tim Noakes in his book all talk about a runner getting progressively more tired, feeling that performance plateaus and then drops, notices that immune system function begins to decline and may even see mood changes or swings in much the same way that extreme stress has been shown to affect people. We should be alert for trends over time and look out for a common acronym in prehospital care called DIC head syndrome. Disoriented, Irritable and Combative. A number of things can cause this and some could be acute problems such as; you could have low blood sugar, could be suffering from the heat, or maybe something more chronic could be overtraining syndrome. Everybody has different physiological set point for this (you are an experiment of one) and it varies depending upon what else is going on in your life as well. It is a fine line for some and gets easier to discern as your “aches and pains” database expands and as you learn more about your training process as journey of minor stressors and growing stronger from each stressor. Tired is natural, while tired with lingering effects and inability to refresh may need intervention. As you might guess, this is much easier to spot in others, outside yourself. Your training log will help you here as well as your running buddies.
Remember when we talked at the beginning about your running log? How you should examine your workouts and they will tell you a great deal about where you and how far you have come? This document can become an important window into how you are doing if you are without a coach or a regular running buddy who can spot your holistic well being. Author Tim Noakes gives a number of suggestions that you may wish to record in your running logbook that extend beyond the idea of mileage, route, shoes worn and time elapsed.
1) How did the run go? We all have a growing “aches and pains database” and this plays a role but on the trend side you want things to get gradually better.
2) What was your effort rating (or PE, perceived effort): If easy workouts feel hard this week, I ask the question “what has changed?”
3) Did you enjoy it – or any part of it? Nearly every run has both good a bad spots and if they do not pass easily out of the bad, I ask the same question as above, or if things clicked – what helped is good information too.
4) You waking pulse rate: I asked you to take a baseline pulse as homework because we want to see improvements and look for spikes in this rate, or a new creep upward, as a sign we must heed.
5) Early morning body weight: This is the best time to get a reading (after the gastrocolic reflex occurs) and this number will fluctuate but we hope that there is not a continued drop over time – a loss of appetite or persistent loss is considered an overtraining sign.
6) Number of hours slept: You know where this is going – get to bed!
7) Heart rate during the workout: This can also tell us about what you are feeling, are you pushing too hard or is it taking more effort to do what was easier to execute two weeks ago? Over time the same route should get a bit faster or easier without increasing heart rate above your regular workout numbers. See the previous lesson about pace to get a Dr. Maffetone recommended pulse rate for your steady state runs.
This kind of data will allow insight toward overtraining trends or on the bright side – when you can bump things up a notch. Many starting out will say “I do not want to bump anything, right now – I am stressed enough!” and that may be true, however 3-4 weeks without changes toward the positive side of the ledger, and no deleterious effects either means that you have hit your plateau at this exertion level and it is time to vary the workload or increase intensity for a new phase. This gradually makes you better at what you are pursuing.
If something hurts for two or more days then take 2 or more days off – simple. During that time stretch, RICE and examine what has changed that would cause the injury – but don’t assume running through it as normal, will be the cure. You will have to use active rest and modify your expectations while learning about the root cause of injury. Here is a great thought, “healing, is not a science, but the intuitive art of wooing nature." - W.H. Auden
If you are sick from the neck up – go ahead and run (it may even help) If you are sick from the neck down – consider sitting this one out.
Expect that you’ll need to take better care of yourself and wash your hands more frequently when your mileage drops. Your immune system is cranking at peak capacity when you are running & when mileage drops sometimes the immune system takes a vacation too.
When you are getting strong running performances each week, you can gain 90% of all possible fitness developments with 4 days/week of running. You may get that extra 10% with 5 or more days each week but what you’ll find is that the number of injuries you see in the runner is appreciably higher.
Trouble signs of overtraining
Injury – muscles not allowed to recover well between workouts suffer from stress injury. Failing running form in the tired athlete leads to excessive pounding, favoring something compounds imbalances. Do not become a sport limper or it will get worse somewhere else on your machine!
Sickness – While running stimulates the immune system, too much too soon - or inadequate rest – allows the body to be susceptible to illness or infection – once you are ground down to nothing, illness sets up shop.
Slump – remember that loss or impairment of higher brain function is one way that the body shows early sign of problems. Irritability, restlessness, trouble sleeping, depression and malaise indicate that you need a rest week (decrease in training volume, additional rest days, 8+ hours of sleep nightly)
How much rest? For starters we stay within the 10% rule, so that we rarely increase training load by more than 10% in any week. We also seek to vary the training cycle and get you some rest every four weeks as a means for you to absorb your training. Within that parameter you’ll also need at least one extra minute per night for each mile you train that week. EG: If you run 15 miles in a week, you’ll need 15 extra minutes each night that week. Closer to race time - seek to allow an extra hour of sleep each evening. Olympic Marathoner Ryan Hall is in bed at 9:30pm every night. You do not spend 12 hours a day there, but you get what you need to charge up for your event.
One last resting tip is feet up - allowing time for fluid exchange (assisted by gravity) not only feels great but really speeds recovery. Racers are now using pressure stockings to gain the same benefit while sitting at their desks. Blood return and elevation are great things for tired feet and lower legs.
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