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!

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!

The first type of speedwork we’ll look at is threshold training. In the 1980s, Jack Daniels (the world renown exercise physiologist and running coach – not the whisky guy!) introduced the term ‘cruise intervals’ to runner. These, along with tempo runs have become the mainstay of threshold training.

But what do the terms mean?

Threshold training – during running, the muscles obtain fuel from a process called glycolysis. As a bi-product of this process, lactic acid can be formed. When exercising gently enough, the body is able to utilise this lactic acid to help fuel the running effort. However, once you start running harder, the lactic acid can build at a pace that the body is unable to clear from the muscles. The point where the acid build up is occurring at the maximum rate at which the body can clear and use it is known by various different terms most commonly lactate threshold or anaerobic threshold. Threshold training is training at a pace that is designed to improve the body’s threshold ie to increase the speed at which the lactate rises at a pace which the body is unable to use.

Tempo runs – tempo runs are continuous runs at a pace that is designed to boost your lactate threshold. The effort required is the same as one you would use if racing for an hour. So, if you complete a 10k in 60 minutes, your 10k would be your threshold pace. For the Paul Tergats of this world who run a half marathon in 60 minutes, their half marathon pace would be their threshold pace. For most club runners it will be somewhere between 10k pace and 10 mile pace. Daniels would suggest that ideally a tempo run should be 20 minutes long (with additional warm up and cool down). Other coaches would include longer tempo runs for marathon runners eg Pfitzinger & Douglas include an 11k tempo run in Advanced Marathoning.

Cruise intervals – the aim of cruise intervals is to run a longish interval at threshold pace with a short recovery so that the lactate level remains fairly constant throughout the session. By running cruise intervals, a runner could run for longer periods at threshold pace than during a tempo run. An example would be for a runner whose threshold pace is 6 minute miling, a cruise session could be 4 x 1 mile with 60 seconds rest between each interval. This would give the runner 24 minutes at threshold pace – more than our 20 minute tempo run. Another use for cruise intervals is to throw a couple of mile intervals at threshold pace into a weekly long run.

There is an almost unbreakable link between race pace and lactate threshold. Your 10k pace will be very close to 2.5% above your threshold pace and your half marathon pace will be very close to 2.5% below it. Fortunately, lactate threshold responds well to training and can be improved by most runners. Daniels and most coaches would advocate plenty of tempo runs and cruise intervals to boost it.

But are they right???

Watch this space and train smart!!

People have been running competitively for many years and during that time, an acquired wisdom has built up over running training and what you need to do to be successful. Over the years, trends have come and gone – following Zatopek’s success, everyone was running intervals; following the success of Arthur Lydiard’s runners, everyone ran 100 miles per week. So is the wisdom of previous years still valid today?

‘Lore of Running’ is a mighty tome authored by one of the world’s leading experts on distance running Tim Noakes. In it he describes the 15 Laws of Training based on the records of Arthur Newton, a competitive runner in the 1920s and 1930s. Can something developed before performance laboratories, sports science and modern diet and equipment still be valid today? There are a couple of these laws that some coaches might disagree with but in principle they are a sound basis for training today.

If that is the case, what about all the scientific studies that we read about in running and fitness magazines? How valid are they?

Although there is some excellent research carried out around the world, it is not always reported accurately or in an unbiased fashion. Before accepting a new piece of research and changing you whole training plan, check the small print rather than the headlines.

• Who was the research carried out on? - rats? Non runners? Experienced runners? Quite often it will be students as there are an abundant resource on university campuses where most of this research is carried out
• What was the study intended to demonstrate? If a study is funded by a company who want it to show how effective their new product is, how much trust will you place in it?

• How applicable is it to your situation? A couple of years ago, many fitness professionals and fitness magazines were recommending Tabata intervals as the fastest way to get fit. If you read the level of intensity Tabata had his subjects perform at, you already needed to be pretty fit to start the programme. For most of the audience, it was beyond their capability.

• What control measures are there? The placebo effect occurs where the mind believes the hype about what the body is trialling and consequently performs far better. Unless there is a control group who provide a comparison (the best studies have double blind protocols – neither the subject nor the researcher know who is getting the good gear and who is getting the fake) I would not trust the results.

However, science has been able to measure why many of the training effects that Newton and other runners like him obtained occurred. With that knowledge, it is possible to target more specifically those areas we would like to improve.

So, I believe in incorporating traditional running wisdom and modern scientific information in designing a training plan.

Train Smart!