If you are going to contest a 26-mile event, you must at least be used to 100 miles a week…As it is always the speed, never the distance, that kills, so is it the distance not the speed that has to be acquired. In the early days of training, you must endeavour only to manage as great a distance on each practice outing as you can cover without being abnormally tired..Your aim throughout should be to avoid all maximum effort while you work wit one purpose only and that is to achieve a definite and sustained rise in average speed at which you practice, for that is the secret of ultimate achievement….You must never, except for short temporary bursts, practice at racing speed.

Newton’s ideas in this law are very close to the hugely successful New Zealand distance running coach Arthur Lydiard. In the 1960s, Lydiard coached a string of Olympic champions based on a philosophy of running 100 mile weeks to gradually increase the average speed followed by a short sharpening phase involving hill sprints and then using speedwork in the racing period just for sharpening. Lydiard’s views, as with Maffetone, are still very popular amongst large numbers of the running community.
Another body of coaches subscribe to the idea of using variable training paces throughout the training year. Frank Horwill, a British coach was probably the first to formalise this idea and it was used very successfully by Seb Coe whose father Peter coached him based on Horwill’s ideas. Coe and Martin describe this in the excellent book ‘Training Distance Runners’.

Over recent years, a new idea about what limits running performance has been proposed. The Integrated Neuromuscular Recruitment Model suggests that rather than fatigue or fuel being the limiting factor in running performance, it is a central governor in the brain. Accordingly, speed training is essential to reset this governor. Matt Fitzgerald discusses this theory and suggests training programmes based upon this idea in his book ‘Brain Training For Runners’. I’ll discuss this idea more fully in a later post.

Where do I stand?

I believe that in today’s world there a few runners who are both bio mechanically efficient enough and have sufficient time to run 100 miles per week. Even fewer would have the patience to spend several years gradually increasing their capability to then enable them to run 100 mile weeks without getting injured. Many recreational runners can achieve excellent performances on minimal mileage provided every mile is effective.
I am also a great believer in training at race pace. Many runners fail to achieve their potential in races due to poor pace judgement – setting off too fast normally. Training at race pace both mimics the energy systems that will be used in racing and enhances the neural pathways for performing on race day.
I believe that there is a place for a gradually increase in mileage for the new runner to enable the muscles/ligaments and tendons to toughen up to enable tougher training ahead.
I do not follow the idea that the best way to progress is to spend many weeks doing high mileage to gradually increase average speed.

Train safe and Train Smart!

Nearly all of us dash into it hoping for and expecting results which are quite unwarranted. Nature is unable to make a really first class job of anything if she is hustled. To enhance our best, we need only, and should only, enhance our average. That is the basis we ought to work on, for it succeeds every time when the other fails. So, in running, it is essential to take to it kindly.

Many beginning runners experience their first injury fairly on in their running career. Often, after successfully completing their first race and full of enthusiasm, they increase their training realising that more miles equals better racing and end up at the physio’s. For most untrained people, the cardio vascular system will adapt to a training stress far more rapidly than the ligaments, muscles and tendons. So, often the new runner will be able to run a distance without experiencing any breathing distress but will end up with shin splints, runners knee or any one of a dozen overuse injuries. So, for newcomers, it is essential to follow this law. Many runners expect to run the same mileage in 10 weeks that it took international runners 10 years to build up to.

What about experienced runners returning to training after a period of injury or just an end of season break?

One system for incorporating this principle into training has been devised by Phillip Maffetone. He is an exercise scientist and coach who has worked principally with triathletes. He would advocate using the Maffetone formula for at least three months at the beginning of your training year.

To establish this, you start with 180 and then subtract your age in years.

Then

If you are recovering from a major illness, recent hospitalisation or are on regular medication, subtract 10

If you have not exercised before or have had a period of not exercising due to injury, or lack of interest, subtract 5

If you have been exercising recently without interruption, subtract 0

If you have been training uninterrupted for 2 years without injury, add 5

You then do all you running at a heart rate that does not exceed this figure.

So, a 50 year old runner with no medical conditions but who is returning to running after being made redundant would use the following calculation:

180 – 50 – 5 = 125.

How realistic is it?

Looking at Train Smart principles, your training has to be tailored to you as an individual, both physiologically and psychologically. The Maffetone method has been used successfully by many runners and those that have used it often have lower injury rates and swear by it. For many runners, me included, the idea of crawling along at a pace barely above walking for at least three months would be enough to drive us loopy!!

So, whether it is using something as structured as the Maffetone formula, or just building your weekly mileage, the slow and steady route is definitely best.

Train Smart!

Dr Timothy Noakes is Professor in the Discovery Health Chair of Exercise and Sports Science Department of Human Biology at the University of Cape Town and is the author or co-author of more than 350 scientific publications and is on the Editorial Boards of 13 international scientific publications. He is also a veteran of over 70 marathon and ultramarathon events – so he doesn’t just study running in isolation, his studies are lived out in his own training.

His book Lore of Running is widely praised as the most complete such book yet written - the “Bible” of running. Currently in its fourth edition, it runs to over 900 pages and covers every aspect of running. If you don’t fancy reading it, you could just use it for weight training!!

In discussing running training, Noakes refers to the 15 Laws of Training. Prior to the development of sports science in the 1970s, very little scientific investigation had been carried out into how the body adapts to training. Most knowledge was gained through trial and error and information passed down through generations. One of the first people to write extensively about running training was an Englishman called Arthur Newton. Newton ran competitively between 1922 and 1935 and wrote extensively about his training. From these writings and his knowledge of sports science, Noakes has compiled the 15 Laws of Training. Over the next few weeks, we’ll look at each in detail and see how whether they are still valid today and, if so, how to incorporate them into an overall training strategy

Train SMART!

Well, not entirely!
For example, a famous Swedish study where runners added a 20 minute continuous run at 10 mile race pace to their weekly training resulted in a 4% increase in Lactate threshold and improvements of 1 minute in 10k times all in just 14 weeks.
However, it’s just half the story!

Training at lactate threshold pace enables the body to become more efficient at running at that pace as the body ‘learns’ to produce less lactate at a given pace. The second half of the story though is that the body can be trained to improve the way it clears and uses the lactate already produced – if you can use it and burn it up more efficiently, you’ll be able to run at a faster pace for longer before you crash and burn right?

Research carried out by a scientist called Arend Bonen in Canada showed that there is a protein called MCT1 which enables this to happen.

Bonen’s research could be summarised as
• It is impossible to increase the amount of lactate the body is able to use without increasing MCT1
• You can train to obtain big increases in MCT1 in both the heart and the muscles
• You can see fairly dramatic results in a fairly short space of time.

So, if MCT1 is the Holy grail in terms of lactate usage, what type of training is the best to boost it?

Research carried out at Iowa State University in the USA suggested that high intensity efforts of 45-120 seconds with 2-4 minutes recoveries were ideal for maximising lactate tolerance.

To transfer that information to a training programme:

All distance runners need to be able to run long, so one session a week would be a long run.

The body needs to prepare for the challenge you are going to give it – both through building sufficient endurance but also by enhancing the neural pathways to become efficient at running at race pace. This is also known as the rule of specificity. So one session a week needs to be based around race pace.

From what we have seen about threshold pace, there are great benefits to work towards maximising it. So, one week could be a traditional tempo or cruise reps session and the next week, a session designed to boost MCT1. This could be something 8 x 1 minute fast efforts with 2 minute recoveries or 6 x 2 minutes fast with 4 minute recoveries.

Have fun and Train SMART!

Runners come into the sport through many different routes. Some were runners at school, trained with a running club and kept up running through their adult lives. Others played other sports and took up running in later life. Others started to run to lose weight, get fit or support a charity.
All runners have a different physiological makeup. They have different balances of slow twitch and fast twitch fibres.

Many running books and training plans have a generic, one size fits all package that takes no account of the individual differences of each runner. So, how can we address the differences?

running coaching

I have two athletes who are both training to run a 40 min 10k. In order to prepare for the race, I will include race pace sessions peaking at a session of 5 x 2k, each 2 k run in 8 minutes with 60-90 seconds between runs.

Runner A has been a track runner all his life, is used to running speed sessions on a track and has progressed to road running from middle distance running. He is a predominantly speed based runner.
Runner B started running for charity and caught the running bug. He has only just started serious training but is used to running long distances at a steady pace. He is a predominantly endurance based runner.

For runner A, running at race pace will be easy but maintaining it over time will be more difficult. Therefore, the progression I would use with him would be 5 x 400m at race pace. When that can be completed easily, extend the distance to 5×600m, then 5×800 and so on.

For runner B, covering the distance will be easy but the speed presents a problem. Therefore the progression I would use with him would be to start at 5 x 1k but at a slower pace – probably 4:30 miling. When he could complete 5x 2k at this pace, I would then gradually increase the pace of the runs until he was comfortable with 5×2k pace.

This is just a simple example but there are lots of factors that effort each individual runner and need to be taken into account in planning training.

Train Smart.