a running paradigm shift
I am going to place a bet that says you wouldn’t ever go to the gym and start doing squats until your legs fall off. I don’t mean doing 25 squats or 50 squats. I mean like doing 20 minutes continuous of body weight squats. Heck I don’t even know if that is possible. Have you ever tried it? Of course not. It just doesn’t make any sense. It is hard enough to do 50 in a row and that probably takes less than 2 minutes if you are fit. So if that is the case then why do most of us keep hammering away at the running equivalent of those body weight squats? Why do we push the edge on those Zone 3 & 4 runs without ever taking a break? Is the reward greater than the risk? Let’s discuss.
Of course many people can run a long time without stopping. Good runners can even do it at a really fast pace. The best of the best runners can do it in a marathon and somehow even sprint in to the finish. But let’s face it this only happens in a race and also that is the top 1% of the top 1% in our sport and that isn’t you. Don’t worry about it as It isn’t me either and I have been at this game for 40 years. For the rest of us running mortals we need to look carefully at the benefits of pulling back on the throttle every so often during these harder runs. Once that effort gets above 75-80% we need to really start paying attention to how hard this run is really supposed to be. As my coach always said - “Training is about making deposits. Racing is about making withdrawals. It is important to know the difference.”
Let’s continue this thought process… If I can make an educated guess it is my bet that when you start a new season back after a break from running, or maybe after an injury or the like you often start out your first few runs back with tons of enthusiasm. You start back with so much excitement that you go blazing off that starting line and clock a pretty decent first mile. Then the second mile comes around and the excitement starts to wane and so does your pace. Here comes mile three and it seems to be taking a lot longer than the first one. If you make it to the fourth mile then you pretty much know what that is going to look like before it starts - a big struggle to hold pace. However, you are a runner and you are stubborn so instead of stopping for a minute to catch your breath you power on instead. Does that sound like you? Do you remember the old saying that when you are stuck at the bottom of a hole that you should probably stop digging - yeah runner’s never really got that one. So dig on you must until those legs nearly fall off.
It doesn’t have to be this way each time you work to get back in shape. It doesn’t have to be a slugfest of one month of misery fighting to find the semblance of the runner you once were. There is an easier path - it just takes a bit of logic and a lot more humility. You see - continuous, quality running is a skill that needs time to develop regardless of what training zone you are trying to hit for the day. It is a skill that needs to be worked at over time and evolve. It can’t be reached by just willing it to be so. To maintain that aerobic pace and hold it for the full length of a run with the same effort you had at mile one takes some practice. It also takes patience and a whole lot of humility.
In common sense terms - why would you give up the goal pace on your daily run just so you can keep on running when you could actually hold it if you just took some breaks in between. Isn’t this what interval training is all about and why we use it so much in every other aspect of our fitness life? Remember my weight lifting analogy from the beginning of this blog? You can’t just step into the gym and start cranking out an exercise nonstop for 5 minutes. You break it into reps and sets based on the intensity of the lift and desired result for the day. Running is no different. You have to work into it. You have to build up your heart, lungs and legs through quality repetitions over time. Why give up on the quality of it all just to chase quantity? Believe me on this one in telling you that it never ends well if you choose to go down that path.
Here is what I offer as a better solution to your fitness problems. Target a pace and total time or distance that you want to achieve for each and every run you do. Match that with the appropriate intensity for that pace. You can use a heart rate monitor or some other stress metric to sort this out. After an easy warm up then settle into the goal pace and keep an eye on your effort level. Once the strain starts to creep up to the top of that workout zone then stop and recover. You could rest altogether or do an active recovery walk or jog. Once the heart rate settles down then start back up again and continue on at your goal pace. For the rest of the run you will continue to do these intervals until you hit your distance goal for the day. You don’t need to run every interval at the same distance or for the same amount of time, but you can if that makes it easier. Just err on the shorter side of things so your heart rate doesn’t drift up and out of the target zone for the day. Over time these intervals will get longer and the quality will remain. Come race day you will know exactly what you can do because you have trained yourself daily to know what is the right pace and effort.
Isn’t this a much better way to do it then just trying to hold a pace until your legs fall off or you collapse of exhaustion short of the finish line? I think it is. Try it and let me know what you think. I bet you will find that running isn’t nearly as hard as we often make it out to be. Remember what I said - it just takes a bit of logic and a lot more humility in those early days. You can do it.
Yours in Running,
Terrence
