Weekly Training Message
Weekly Training Message
Embedded Files
December 2023
December 2023
December 22nd
December 22nd
Quote of the Week:
Recovery is not always 100% clear
You’ll always benefit from an slow run
It’s easy money in the fitness bank
You never miss out on anything
Not going to lie, I've enjoyed my coaching vacation. It was a busy year, lots of successes, lots of progress, lots of lessons learned. I was able to work with a lot of great people this year. I have pride in every athlete who puts in the effort and strives to reach their goal, whether they are successful or not - the pay off for me when the athlete is engaging and active and we can both learn something. I've said before I get zero joy is someone who pays for a program and just does not even try to do it. No one gains in that situation.
The 2024 options are available here. I already know a lot of you have committed to marathons in the fall. Easy to guess a lot of the goals. The fun is in the journey to get there and trying to set you up for success.
From my own personal perspective, I've had a great year. I've loved helping so many people and I had a year of performances I was quite pleased with myself. Highlights for me included the USR Marathon and Cape 2 Cabot. The USR has been a year long goal, which I felt I peaked for nicely, and executed a strong game plan. The C2C involved not rushing my recovery from the USR, trusting in the aerobic development from the marathon training, then focusing on 2 or 3 key workouts in the two weeks before and going out well exceeding expectations.
I capped off my running year with a 40K run for my 40th birthday. It was a semi-spur of the moment decision that was encouraged by the weather, and it was great to have so many people join in for the whole thing or for portions. From a coaching perspective, I'd say it was too much time on feet, hadn't really prepared to run that distance based on recent running.... but eff that, sometimes you go do something foolish and just have fun.
Looking forward to a 2024 full of running and coaching. Have a safe and happy holiday everyone.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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October 2023
October 2023
Week of October 16th
Week of October 16th
Quote of the Week:
Shin splints should never occur. Many non-runners fear them, but they're highly avoidable. - BowTiedRunner (Read the thread)
The linked post above has some solid guidance on shin splints. Generally some pretty guidance to main route causes of shin splints. On the shoe side of things, I'm a fan of having at least 3 shoes in your rotation in various states of wear. I firmly believe it helps condition the body to various footwear changes.
After this weekend the coaching year is winding down. I have one more athlete headed to the Philadelphia Marathon on November 19th, but after a busy year, it's time to take a little break. I'm heading on vacation at the end of the week (with limited connectivity), then travelling for work shortly after. Hopefully shortly after I'll update everything for next years programs.
The year definitely had it's ups and downs. For the second year in a row weather conditions made the Tely a lackluster event to test out how a spring focused on base training went. Outside of the Tely though the local races generally had some fantastic conditions. I had people travel off the island and competing. Goals were hit and goals were missed. When a goal is missed I love to sit down and think of cause and effect. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it is not so clear. My hope is always to maximize your chance of success, and minimize the chance that the training failed you. Good or bad I do welcome all athletes to reflect on the year and give me honest feedback. What you liked, what you didn't.
I always aim to keep learning myself. I keep doing courses. I keep reading books. Your feedback helps a lot though.
I'm going to try to populate some straightforward stuff in Final Surge, but I may be short on time this week. A lot of you are recovering from races. Generally, keep the run routine simple. For the next couple weeks, easy runs with 30 to 60 minutes depending on your level as a runner. After that, throw in some strides into your runs at least once a week. Beyond that throw in an occasional fartlek session, and my personal preference is every couple of weeks keep that steady state run in the rotation, keep up some 20 minutes out and backs (10 out/10 back) during your runs were you push the effort to the edge of where you can hold a steady, comfortable pace (if more experienced and comfortable, go to 30 minutes).
Don't give up the long run. It's the most important tool in training. Always say if you only get one run in the week, make it the long run (assuming you've appropriately prepared). Depending on your level, keep up the at a minimum a 75 minute weekly run, but if comfortable with it, no reason not to keep hitting 2 hours or so every few weeks. I've said it enough, but these should be relaxed and conversational. They should be enjoyable and not fatiguing.
Some of you may still be doing the Run to Remember 11K. Love this race, I have a great preview of it in the race preview section. On race week, I love some combination of a fartlek workout, fast finish run or 50/50s.
I'll also pitch the Cross Country Championships on November 4th. I'm hoping to do this for the first time myself as it falls between trips. For us over 20 runners, it's 6K course in Bowring Park.
It's been a great year everyone. It'll be mid November before I get another post up. I am available this week by the usual means, but from the 20th to 31st will be limited.
Welcome to the offseason, where running doesn't stop, we just focus on consistency and the fundamentals. Also a good time to develop your strength/cross training options. The goal is recovering and building the base for a strong year in 2024.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of October 9th
Week of October 9th
Quote of the Week:
Be hard on yourself when it comes to consistency. Be easy on yourself when it comes to intensity. Most athletes have it in reverse. - Alan Couzens
I'm (really) late this week. The long weekend combined with a busy week.
Quote above goes in line with what I always say, consistency is king in running. Get out the door regularly. Overdoing it on intensity is not a method of sustainable improvement.
How about the Chicago Marathon last week? It was amazing conditions on a great course. Congrats the athletes I had there. You got to play in the same game where the Men's World Record was smashed!
This week, is the final week that I have people training for events in 2023, and I'm pretty pumped... for the athletes and for a little break myself (vacation next Friday!).
Here is my course review for the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. An event I really love having done both the 21.1K and 42.2K. Course Preview. My 20 to 22K range might be a little outdated though. Here is a video of the course. Lots of Newfoundlanders will be in attendance.
On the local scene, we have the Cape 2 Cabot this weekend. I've never written a preview of this course because honestly, it's near impossible to plan for precisely. You'd need to be running with a detailed plan because depending on the elevation two adjacent kilometers could have vastly different splits. You are just a passenger on that course. The hills are the hills. I love the comradery you get amongst the runners as they hit the first one and think "What the hell am I doing!"
Saying that, Andrew Tobin wrote some greats tips for the Cape a few years ago.
Good luck to everyone racing this weekend!
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
RACE WEEK - Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of October 2nd
Week of October 2nd
Quote of the Week:
Every athlete that I have ever coached are aware that I strongly preach that the absolute worst marathon strategy is “time in the bank”. Even splits are great, negative splits are even better. - Hanson's Distance Project
Last week the cut-off time's for the Boston Marathon were announced. You had to be an unbelievable 5:29 faster than your BQ Standard Time. What drove this? Maybe it was a surge in marathon participation post-Covid? People sought out events as they become easier to find? Reducing the field by 1,000 qualifiers didn't help. I don't think the average runner has just gotten so much faster. Super shoes? Who knows, but clearly every advantage you can get in a qualifying attempt will be worth it. So far they've been quiet on if the Standards will be adjusted. If we don't hear anything soon, I feel like it's a sign they think this year was an overcorrection in the running community and next year will be more normal. I really hope so at least.
As for runner's who did not make the cut-off. It sucks. It's disappointing. I've internally raged all week when I see posts casually stating "well they should know to run 10 minutes faster." Elite-ist attitudes from athletes (and coaches!!!) who do not grasp the hard work people put into improving. If you know you gave it your all, you did what you could with your training and race day conditions, then still cherish the fact that you made improvements, you hit a new PB, you were good enough to be able to apply. After that, it's out of your hands.
It's race week for athletes going to Chicago. I love watching marathons on TV, but very few are in convenient time zones. This one is, but if I recall it'll take the "shady/gray" tactics to actually get to watch it in Canada. Chicago, New York, and Boston should be no brainers for national networks.
For athletes headed to Chicago, I found a website, which is telling me that you will have some fantastic race weather. Looks like a tailwind the whole way - https://findmymarathon.com/chicago-marathon-weather.php.
Remember the quote I have above. Be smart in the early stages of the race. Aggressiveness or over estimating how good it feels, can significantly bite you in the ass later on. I can usually get a feel for how a 5K is going to go for me about 1K into the race. In a marathon, at 21.1KM it can be feeling good, but there is still a lot of running to do and predict. Things can change pretty fast.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
RACE WEEK - Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
2 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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September 2023
September 2023
Week of September 25th
Week of September 25th
Quote of the Week:
What everyone should know about volume & intensity:
⬆️ Intensity: Fitness improves very quickly & plateaus very quickly.
⬆️ Volume: Fitness improves more slowly but plateaus *much* more slowly.
Choose wisely - Alan Couzens @Alan_Couzens
Love the quote above. I've mentioned before you that you have two levers in your training. Key is knowing when to focus on one, and know how to keep them in balance. When their is a race goal in mind everyone always focuses on the intensity lever, but read last weeks quote and see how they related. Build the base to elevate the peak. I'll throw in another tweet from Couzens that was sent on the same day... Say it with me... No matter how much you want it to be true. Intensity is not a substitute for volume. If you really want to be fit, you have to put in the time.
The training calendar is winding down. I spent yesterday AM watching race results from Montreal. Between that and being at the finish line, I feel like it's more gratifying than running a race myself, definitely much more stressful according to my watch. There is a relief when people cross that finish line. No matter the result, making it there is an accomplishment, and a payoff to a lot of hard work and dedication.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
2 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
3 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of September 18th
Week of September 18th
Quote of the Week:
"The more I did the harder running the more essential it became to do the easier running." - Frank Shorter (1972 Olympic marathon gold medalist)
The finals of the 2023 Diamond League (track and field) competition was broadcast this weekend. It was taking place in Eugene, OR. The prior to being the finals of Diamond League, the annual meet was known as the Prefontaine Classic, in honor of one of the greatest American runners of all time, Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine's story and tragic death is pretty interesting, in fact two movies were released within 8 months of each other in 1997/98 telling his story. Of course this led me down the trail of watching "Without Limits" and "Prefontaine". "Pre" was notorious for being a front runner, he liked to race aggressively and lead from the start and just try to hold on as long as he could, giving the famous quote "Somebody may beat me, but they are going to have to bleed to do it."
Coach Bill Bowerman (Nike co-founder) spent a lot of time trying to break him of this habit. "Without Limits" has a great scene where Bowerman is congratulating him on an amazing race, but then points out how it could have been faster. He broke down Pre's splits, which got incrementally slower as the race progressed. The strategy left time on the table, Bowerman laid out the splits he believed he could have run with better strategy which wouldn't just have broken a record, but shattered it. Conserving energy early, racing smart and finishing strong. It's a scary process that requires faith in your training and race ability.
In my marathon, I had planned to run just a little more conservative then I did through the first loop. The night before, seeing the forecast and the indications at what time it would get warm and knowing I'm not big on the heat, I made a pivot in my strategy to aim to be the 20 mile mark by 150 minutes and be ready to battle for my goal at that point. Despite achieving my goal, I do still wonder if I'd gone out with the original game plan would I have ended up 60 seconds faster overall? Spending that energy you need late in a race too early in a race is going to comeback to hurt you threefold. Would having that reserve have helped me pace that final 10K of warmer tempo and uphill more consistently with my first half? I'm inclined to think I at least made a modest mistake in my approach.
I've got people travelling to Montreal this week. Remember, carry anything that is race essential in your carry on luggage. Lay out your race gear once you arrive to make sure your not missing anything you may need to shop for. Make your plan to have your pre-race snack available in the AM. Take some earplugs because their will be increased background/traffic noise trying to sleep in a hotel.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
RACE WEEK - Montreal Half Marathon;
3 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
4 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of September 11th
Week of September 11th
Quote of the Week:
The hardest part of a marathon is making it to starting line. - Mark Didham
I'm sure someone else had said it, and I definitely read it myself (or a similar sentiment elsewhere), but because I can't find it, I'll give myself credit. There are so many obstacles to getting to the start line. Getting over the personal doubts and fear to get yourself to sign up. Finding time for the prep and training required while managing the rest of your life. Managing the niggles and pains that pop up flares up the personal doubts. Dealing with less than ideal weather in training. And then an injury so close to race day you aren't able to recover. When you get to that starting line 99.9% of the work is done. many more miles have been run. It's just to draw on that for inspiration to make it to finish. Always appreciate the accomplishment whether you hit your goal or you walk it in.
I don't have much else to say this week, I'm still drained from my own event. I'm super proud of everyone who raced in any of the USR events yesterday. I've spoken with a lot of you. I'd love to see some race debriefs left on the Final Surge activity for your race. For some it was the end of the current training plan (so let me know what you are pivoting into next... I suspect a lot of people will tell me Cape 2 Cabot), for others it was a tune up before an event still on the list below. People going to Montreal will just be entering their taper/peak weeks, so refresh yourselves on my last two weeks of postings.
Don't neglect your cross training in the final stages of event prep. Keep up the strength work. Keep up your usual routines.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
2 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
4 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
5 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of September 4th
Week of September 4th
Prioritize your sleep! Especially in a race week. It'll be hard to get the night before a race, but work on building up a surplus earlier in the week. Sleep not just helps performance, it is one of the stop methods of injury prevention. Be well rested, especially in the race specific and tapering periods of training.
It's race week for my first batch of coached races... and my own marathon week. At the gym this AM I ran into a runner who is doing their first marathon on Sunday. Told me that the plan was to do zero running all week and be completely rested. My only question was are you hurt? The answer was no, feeling great, just wanted to be real well rested. Without a good reason to rest (injury), that amount of excessive rest will be a hindrance on marathon day. I warned that athlete to keep some volume in their with some intensity in order to avoid feeling flat on race day. You don't want to throw away 5 or 6K of the race struggling to get into a groove.
For those racing this weekend (especially marathoners), have your logistics worked out ahead of time, know what you are wearing, control everything you can control. Like I said last year before Toronto, race week is the time where you can/should be selfish. You have put in a lot of work to get here, so this week is about you. Most of all, don't spend time worrying about things you can't control (primarily weather), it is what it is, wasting energy worrying about things won't change them. Relax, sleep, hydrate, and eat smart.
Going to pop in a link to an article from Greg McMillan, The Talk Test: The World's Greatest Training Tool. This is just to remind you all of this nice, easy, free tool to evaluate the effort at which you are executing your runs.
One last note, Running Free currently has at least 20% off everything on their site. So if you need new shoes, a fall jacket, a headlamp, click the link at the bottom this email before you shop and buy!
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
RACE WEEK!!! USR Half/Full Marathon;
3 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
5 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
6 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
August 2023
August 2023
Week of August 28th
Week of August 28th
Just a reminder there isn't one workout that will make or break you. It's impossible to nail every single one. Just keep getting up and getting out there.
Those of us prepping for the USR are heading into the final two weeks of tapering. I prefer Greg McMillan's method of labeling this period as 'peaking'. When people see the word tapering they tend to just go into complete rest mode. Weekly volume falls off a cliff. It's very common to hear an athlete on race day complain that they feel flat or with no bounce. This is due to sudden change in their routine and increase in rest. McMillan recommends the following approach (most of which I should plan for you):
Don't change your weekly running routine - run the same number of days you were running throughout your while schedule. Unless of course you have an injury or niggle requiring extra attention.
Reduce weekly training volume, but not too much - reduce the volume of running in your workouts by a subtle amount. Too drastic of a drop can leave you stale on race day. More runners fail because of tapering too much rather than not enough.
Keep the engine revved - keep some intensity in your workouts. Don't race your workouts, but don't back off them. One recent addition I've added in the peaking/tapering phase are the 50/50 workouts. A mile alternating between 50m relaxed and 50m fast. Keep tension in the legs.
Plan your strategy and stick with it - let's work together to plan your race based on your strengths and unless conditions drastically change, stick to the plan. You know what needs to be done, so get out of your own way and let the race unfold.
Reflect on training to build confidence - Get a boost from looking back at the tough sessions where you didn't feel great, but toughed it out. Remind yourself how tough you are!
Have fun and smile - Your race isn't going to impact whether you put food on your table or not. There is no real pressure, so don't put unrealistic pressure on yourself. Smiling is a endorphin booster. Smile and have fun during race week to heighten your mood.
A positive, happy mindset and a well trained body that is adequately rested but revved and fueled and hydrated is the goal for race day.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
2 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
4 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
6 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
7 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of August 21st
Week of August 21st
I keep going back to Steve Magness quotes as of late, but it's simply because his Twitter account is full of real good shit. I'm also currently reading his book Do Hard Things: Why We Get Resilience Wrong and The Surprising Science of Real Toughness. He has been a high level collegiate runner but is a world renowned coach and performance science expert. Also a man of integrity as he was a key whistleblower in the Nike-Alberto Salazar scandal.
Back to the thread, it's a fantastic read. It examines these from key forms of fatigue and notes the interventions needed to address them. Some are simple, like combating flatness with some short sprinty activities (strides, hill sprints, etc) or using sleep to battle soreness, stress, and lethargy to some dietary suggestions or seeking medical opinions. Some fall races are already heading into the home stretch, the goal now is to get you there as healthy as possible and ready to maximize the fitness you have built on race day. Communicate how you are feeling and I can change up weekly training with interventions to try to help (where appropriate).
Athletes preparing for the USR is heading into the last week of harder work. On everyone's plan should be one last longer week day run where they try out race pace. Stay honest to your actual plan for marathon day, as it's so easy to go out on these fast especially on a good day. Let these runs be training for the start of the race, when you are fresh but can easily make mistakes that will haunt you 35KM (for a marathoner) later. Learn control and patience with running your goal pace from the start. The most self destructive thought you can have in your head at the start of a marathon are the words "bank time". It's just going to a lead to a bad time later on.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
3 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
5 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
7 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
8 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of August 14th
Week of August 14th
Raise the floor. Don't just focus on the ceiling.
When it comes to performance, our average days matter more than our best.
It's easy to show up when everything is clicking
But what impacts our success more is being pretty good day after day
Make your okay days better. - @stevemagness
The quote is the same message I keep pushing. It's the steady, easy work we do that's prepares us for the new PBs/strong performances. Fall goals are achieved due to the base laid down in Spring training. It's hard on the body when we have to scramble 8 to 12 weeks out to add duration and intensity to a run. At that point we are throwing together a tippy tower of training that can crumble vs. a nice strong pyramid. 8 to 12 weeks of a race plan should be for fine tuning not building from scratch.
This week I want to talk about one mine (and many other's) favorite marathon prep workouts, Yasso 800s. These are named after famed Running World founder Bart Yasso. These are considered a marathon predictor workout (with some flaws noted below). The theory about them is that your time in minutes and seconds for a 10 x 800M interval with equal recovery time will be the same as the hours and minutes of your marathon time. IE, if you can run 10 x 800M steadily in a three minutes and 30 seconds with a three minute and 30 seconds recovery between each interval, then you should be able to run a three hour and thirty minute marathon.
This is a tough workout, and generally it should feel like you doing about a 10K race pace (Makes sense with 8K of hard work in total with 10 repeats). This one will get tough as you progress and you'll really be grinding out those last few repeats.
It's not a perfect predictor though, it implies you've done the work to build up distances, you race a marathon sensibly (no half marathon PBs in the first half), and it isn't impacted by things out of the athletes control (weather). In general, Greg McMillan note's that it predicts about 5 minutes fast for most marathoners. It can vary based on the type of runner you are. For an endurance monster/tortoise type runner it'll be most accurate and typically up to 2 minutes slower. For the speedster/hare type runner, they'll be 3 1/2 to over 5 minutes slower than the prediction. A good combo runner will be 2 to 4 minutes slower than predicted from the workout result.
It may not be perfect, but it's a great training stimulus, and I like to include 2 to 3 times in a marathon cycle. For newer runners I'll start at 6 to 8 repetitions and increase up to 10. Doing it couple times will help you get a feel for fitness increases.
The UCAN order is placed and I should be here early next week.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
4 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
6 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
8 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
9 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of August 7th
Week of August 7th
I liked that quote when I read it. It's basically the foundation to how I structure my week as well. Workouts (which may just more easy runs depending on the phase), long run, plus what ever extra mileage your body is being built up to manage - which is generally at light aerobic efforts.
I had some good calls with athletes over the last week. I always try to learn from the questions I'm asked. As with last year, one thing that has come up, was the "how long should my longest run be" conversation. I've seen people adamant on 32K, 35K, and even the full distance. How far is never the question, how long is. I will tend to lean towards legendary coach Jack Daniel's approach to the long run, which is inline with the certifications I've done. I encourage you to watch this video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO1hQ_kplgo.
His rule of thumb is that the long run should be the lesser of 25% of your weekly mileage or 2 1/2 hours. It comes down to what real benefit are you getting beyond the 2 1/2 hour mark? Anything you gain, you are likely offsetting in the increased recovery time and the bump in injury risk. He also shoots down the mental benefits people say they are getting.
I will stretch it just a little further than what Danie's says, I'll do up to that 2:45, even approach 3 hour mark for my longest run, which I want to occur 3 to 5 weeks before race day in order to get the most benefit. One thing the note is that due to the extra time, the pace should stay relaxed. I start looking at exceptions to this when you are going to be over 5 hours for a marathon. I might get them to increase their total weekend mileage, gather than go for the extra time all in one outing. I explore different things on an athlete by athlete basis.
I've been asked about a UCAN order. I'm going to aim to place an order by Wednesday afternoon. I've confirmed the pricing for all products on https://smartperformancenutrition.ca/ will be 10% off the price and no HST. He also has Maurten products available:
12 pack of Gel 100 for $54 + HST
12 pack of Gel 320 Drink Mix ($61.20 + HST)
There will be a small shipping fee distributed per person. Email me at markdidham@gmail.com by Wednesday with your order. I'll confirm payment amount after shipping.
TRAINING WEEKS COUNTDOWN:
5 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
7 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
9 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
10 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
July 2023
July 2023
Week of July 31st
Week of July 31st
Race day is just the celebration of everything you went through to get there. Always make sure to enjoy it!
Going to re-visit my piece on nutrition during runs briefly. I do firmly believe in the benefits of the adaptations your body undergoes when you reduce your sugar intake during long runs. Ideally this initial adaptation would happen during a base building phase where the only focus is adding on some distance at a nice relaxed long run paces. It's not a good idea to start this late into a training plan. And it's a good idea to consume some type of fuel when doing a long run that may include race pace efforts. At these times you want to set yourself up to succeed.
On a side note, I was chatting with the Canadian distributed of UCAN yesterday, he's just heading on vacation, but is awaiting a fresh supply of all their products. I'm going to place an order by the 10th or 11th if anyone wanted some of their products. The UCAN orders typically have free shipping with a 15% discount. On a side note, he also let me know he has another venture which has access to Maurten gels, these quite popular and regarded as a premium gel, which better than your generic GU. He won't be able to do the same discount, but can probably get some free shipping.
Those of us training for a USR event on September 10th are starting to enter sharpening phases. Hopefully over the next couple weeks you have good workouts and start to feel more confident and ready.
EVENT COUNTDOWN:
6 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
8 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
10 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
11 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
Week of July 24th
Week of July 24th
Thread on working out in the heat and humidity - @stevemagness
That linked thread is a solid read. Point 8 expands on something I've mentioned to people a few times this past week. We are all going to feel like Rockstar's on a nice cool day running. I do like his idea of making that day a hard workout whenever it hits. Adapt your schedule if you see that chance. Reach out to me.
This week I'll mention my own training. I am definitely feeling a bit claustrophobic with the USR date so close. The June race schedule was tight and intense and didn't leave much room for a few more long runs I'd have liked. I played July conservative for myself (and others with the same race goal), with a focus on base. The reason here was twofold, first was for some recovery from the busy spring/June race schedule, and second was to feel too much pressure to nail workouts in the July heat (which definitely arrived). Hopefully we have some acclimatization/break in humidity to real bring home the last 7 weeks. Definitely would be nice to have an extra couple weeks to race day.
I've also forced myself to follow my own advice and seek some treatment for a niggling pain that hasn't stopped me from running, but I can feel day to day and at the start of activities. My right heel has had some stiffness/aching since early June and the official diagnosis is insertional achilles tendonitis. I've been given some simple work to do between the first and second sessions, and I'm taking that seriously to avoid getting to the point where alternate training would be recommended. So far it seems to be helping.
There has been an increase in people popping in comments to me on runs as I requested. Thanks! This helps get me into Final Surge when I'm busy in the day.
I'm going to try to be better at posting my long run plan on my Iceberg facebook page. The last two weekends the plan has lacked firmness due to Saturday activities. The rest of the way I'm locked in. If you ever want to join a group Tuesday/Thursday workout, pop me a message.
EVENT COUNTDOWN:
7 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
9 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
11 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
12 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of July 17th
Week of July 17th
I really liked the tweet above. It take a lot to be fully out of the game. Keep the body moving. An added bonus is that Dr. Carlin is a noted physiotherapist, if you go to his twitter feed the top post pinned post is 10 incredibly useful exercises for runners.
A big training topic that keeps coming up this week is heat. It has not been pleasant for activities. Why is it so tiring and depleting? The key reason is that our workouts are fueled by oxygen and the efficiency of oxygen delivery to our muscles. Oxygen is delivered by blood flow, but on warm days some blood flow is redirected from our working muscles to the skin as part of our internal cooling system. This means we are using more energy to continue with the oxygen delivery, our lactate production will increase, and we'll end up with a higher heart rate than a cooler weather run. Throw on an increase in fatigue caused by dehydration.
Due to all these factors, the simple thing is, we will be slower in the heat. This is another time when perceived effort will be key because pacing will suffer and it'll be much easier to overdue a workout. Ignore the watch and just focus on the feeling. An easy run in the heat might need to be 20s/km slower, but as I've said before, if we keep the body doing the right effort for the right amount of time, you'll still achieve the targeted adaptation of the workout. Over a couple weeks your body will acclimatize to an extent, but you'll still need to adjust your expectations for the result of the workout until you get cooler weather.
Ideally we'll have some acclimatization and cooler temps before we hit the key training phases of fall goal races.
EVENT COUNTDOWN:
8 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
10 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
12 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
13 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of July 10th
Week of July 10th
Like the quote last month, this one comes back to making the investment in your running. It's all about the investment in time on feet (mileage), to build up your savings (larger aerobic base), to spend (speed work/race days) at the right times for the best return (PB).
I've visited this subject previously, and I was just involved in a coaches discussion on it - consider the benefits of weening yourself of gels or other carbohydrate replacements during your long run. Per McMillan... "The benefits of this low/no fuel training is that it results in greater fat burning, more muscle fiber recruitment, a boost to the aerobic system, a lot of mental toughness training and greater storage of muscle glycogen post-run". These are fantastic physiological adaptations not just for marathon runners, but any runner. Basically your body will develop it's ability to be more efficient when burning our limitless fat stores instead of going right into our limited carbohydrate stores.
With this approach you rely on running with compromised glycogen stores and avoid spikes in blood glucose, and in order to this you need to avoid the fast acting sugars found in most gels. These compromises make your body work harder and as a result it stimulates greater adaptations - metabolic changes which will help you get through the race with plenty of fuel and avoid the dreaded bonk!
When a runner bonks, it's when they have depleted their carb storage, you can extend the time it takes to get to this point (and ideally not incur it) by training your body to burn fat at faster speeds, and keep the carb/glycogen stores for later.
Like most adaptations, it'll take 2 to 4 weeks for the body to adjust. You help ease the discomfort by just plain slowing down (my solution to most things).
The best way to ease in is to eat a solid pre-run meal and practice with a shorter long run. You can take an "emergency gel" if you need to, but resist the urge. As you get more comfortable you can eat lighter meals, if you wish to go another step, you can eat a solid meal the night before and run fasted. This is an approach I've been using lately.
While I'm suggesting weening off gels, I still encourage - especially in the summer - having water (and sugar-free electrolytes) on a long run. Of course I also don't blindly recommend this approach if you are diabetic or similar health issues. Consult a physician for any concerns.
As well, if you are doing certain specialty long runs (pace change, fast finish), use these as chances to practice with gels if you wish. Same with any type of longer race simulation run, and of course race day itself. By the time the race arrives we have gained the adaptations from training and now we want our body to have every advantage possible. If you are going to race with some type of supplement, you do want to have some comfort that it will agree with your body (and don't use them as a replacement for water). I've heard of many marathons that have been sunk by adverse stomach reactions to a gel.
One last thing for today. It can be difficult with work and life at times to view everything coming across Final Surge. I try to check in as best I can. One way to guarantee I see something is to leave a "Workout Comment" that gets it in my email and makes it nice and easy to take a look at a key workout, and I'm pretty good at replying to messages.
Decided to leave this as a weekly reminder:
9 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
11 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
13 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
14 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of July 3rd
Week of July 3rd
Outside of quotes about the benefits of easy running, hill quotes are my next favorite. Speed work in disguise is accurate. Building leg strength is key for faster paces and especially the longer distance races. If you are training for a marathon you need to be doing something. Getting in hilly runs helps, but dedicated leg strength training helps with speed and more importantly injury resistance. McMillan has a solid plan with the Marathon Legs program (which can be loaded to Final Surge). 6 to 8 weeks of training has the same benefit has a nice fancy new pair of carbon shoes, but stack those things instead of choosing one or the other.
I've been busy the last week mapping out the routes to the fall races for everyone. I think I have programs loaded for everyone who had a full year program or re-upped since the Tely. If you are missing anything let me know. Also, if I have forgotten to get back to you, please message me again!
The way the calendars are set up, everyone will always have at least 4 days in their calendar. I do believe you cannot get the minimum time on feet needed for real improvement and to build an acceptable mileage base to do hard workouts without running at least 4 times a week. Others may have five. These are people who are really looking to improve their performance. Getting to 5 to 6 is ideal in my view, but to do this, you need to have restraint with easy/recovery running, and I'm also not opposed to subbing out that day with something like a long bike ride.
I'm also going to throw in an unplanned heat reminder. The temperature has a big impact on our performance. Don't dwell on your pace on a warm day, when it doubt, go back to your perceived effort to judge the run.
Blank days don't mean to definitely rest, I'm just not scheduling anything extra in their. If you want to use these days to help build up weekly mileage I'm okay with it as long as it's done in a smart manner.
As a reminder, the schedule is flexible. Arrange your week in a way that helps you be most successful, just one key rule is don't do the hard stuff on back to back days. I'd rather you remove one then stack them like that. If you have to miss something, it's not the end of the world. No one run makes you, it's a process.
Decided to leave this as a weekly reminder:
10 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
12 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
14 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
15 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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June 2023
June 2023
Week of June 26th
Week of June 26th
So in all likelihood the Tely didn't go as you all planned. When we race we try to focus on controlling the controllables, weather is one of those things that is out of our hands. It is a frustration as an athlete and as a coach. Last year my intent was to use it to demonstrate the effects of a longer, focused aerobic base training phase as part of overall plan for athletes going to Toronto and it was cancelled in July. This year, I had more focus on the event but in NL fashion, a terrible spring and June, leads a freakishly warm morning for race day. Now this AM, is ideal conditions. Go figure.
Send me some debriefs on your Tely if you want. Interested to still hear. The focus now turns to fall races. In particular I love marathon training. I like that generally athletes are much more relaxed about their speed, their is less tendency to force and people accept the increase in mileage much easier. I think it just becomes easier for them to trust the process.
I'm going to start getting plans in Final Surge this week for athletes. Some of you have draft versions of plans already. If I don't get it populated in the next couple of days, today, tomorrow, Wednesday should be recovery paced runs/"jogs". Run slower than you feel. Movement is good to heal the muscles, and your body/organs may still be suffering from mild heat illness that isn't easily detectable. Everything else in the week is still just easy, and a nice easy long run on the weekend. As a whole, July is largely an aerobic "reset".
For planning purposes:
11 weeks to USR Half/Full Marathon;
13 weeks to Montreal Half Marathon;
15 weeks to Chicago Marathon & Trapline Half/Marathon;
16 weeks to Toronto Waterfront Half/Full Marathon & Cape 2 Cabot.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of June 19th
Week of June 19th
BONUS QUOTE:
“One of the biggest mistakes that a lot of people do is they go too hard in training. That’s basically because of their mentality and what they’re struggling with — they don’t believe in themselves. That’s why they need to do it in training because they need to build up that confidence.” - Jakob Ingebrigtsen - New 2 Mile World Record Holder (7:54.10)
IT'S TELY WEEK!!!
In most plans I would have had last week and this week as tapering week. Now as I've said, I share McMillan's dislike of the word taper, because too many interpret it as a rest week(s). You want to keep moving, keep running, and you want some intensity to keep the tension/readiness in the legs, you just reduce the amount of general volume and intense volume in your schedule in order to assist with knocking any lingering fatigue out of your body.
In race week by Monday I always start focusing on getting good sleep for the week. It's a guarantee that the night before the race you are not going to sleep well, plus you are often up earlier for race preparations. But your race sleep isn't dictated by one night, so you make sure you stay rested throughout the week.
By Wednesday I'm usually making sure I'm getting enough water daily and staying well hydrated (but not overhydrated!!!). The last 2 days or so before the race I like to make sure the foods I eat are known quantities that will not be disagreeable to my body.
I like that quote from McMillan above, simply because it reminds me of how I used to view studying for exams in school. Whenever I studied hard the second I ran up against a road block question it'd become like being in quicksand because I'd think I should know the answer. Instead I did my best when I had an understanding of the material, but I didn't focus on knowing absolutely everything. On a tough question instead of crumbling, I could dig deep and pull an answer from somewhere in my head. If you've overtrained, the damage is done and it can be difficult to hit your goal, if you undertrained, you still have strength to pull from and achieve your goal.
I threw in that bonus quote because I saw it, and didn't want to forget it. Simple lesson is, stop trying to run you races in training. It'll often lead to the overprepared scenario in McMillan's quote.
Just a heads up for post-Tely. Start reaching out to me with your fall goals. I've been building plans for people and sending out some drafts. Some of you are paid for the year, some need to re-up after the Tely (if you wish), some of you I'll reach out to because for different reasons you never really did a plan, so I'll just roll you over to the fall (I'll reach out). I'm also going to start trimming down the mailing list in July.
GOOD LUCK THIS WEEKEND!!!
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Week of June 12th
Week of June 12th
First, great job to everyone I saw racing the Mews 8K. I've had some quick looks are Final Surge, and I see a lot of big negative splits, really taking advantage of the second half of that course. I like the Mews because it is a fast course, it becomes a great source of positive feedback. In those last few weeks before a big goal race, that positive feedback loop becomes more and important. There aren't any miracle workouts at this point, it's just trying to be fresh for the goal race, not doing anything stupid, and not letting something negative burrow into your brain and sink your race before you even start it.
Back to that quote at the top, it brought me back to my first Lydiard course. The base-work we put in early in the year or the beginning of a new cycle is focused on developing our aerobic system (don't tune out yet...). The Lydiard way, and what I've employed this year, will have a phase were we exclusively focus on this area. Outside of some strides or an occasional fartlek, I focused on the purpose of this work.
In the aerobic/base phase we smartly invested in ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate) - the units of energy produced in the mitochondria of the cell increased by correct training, the source of energy to do all activities. Aerobic training grows our capacity to store ATP. Smart investing. In January it wouldn't have made sense to go out an do 5 x 1KM @ 5K Effort, that's like burning money. You are months away from racing, gaining no real benefits. As we advance through a training calendar, if we spend our investment wisely, we can avoid "borrowing from the bank" and spend our savings on workouts that have a good return. The risk is still in overdoing it, and what each athlete can spend, comes down to the quality of their base building and their own athletic attributes. Hopefully at this point your reaping those benefits and not losing a kneecap.
Now we are heading into the taper period before the Tely 10. As I've said before I dislike this word taper, as people tend to take it as a reason to have a mini hibernation before the race. I prefer peaking. This is the phase where all that smart investing and spending gets one last interest boost. Keep your regular schedule, overall reduce the volume in the week and reduce (but not eliminate) the intensity. The goal is to stay sharp like you've been, but do allow just that little bit of extra recovery/super compensation time for the body to arrive at race day ready to go on a spending spree.
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Week of June 5th
Week of June 5th
"Decided not to study much for an exam, or skip out on practice before a big game?
Actually putting forth effort, requires being okay confronting your limits." - @SteveMagness
That tweet rung familiar to me. I've definitely been guilty of premeditating that reason why I could fall short of accomplishing a goal in running or other areas of life. It's okay to not achieve your goals. Goals are meant to require work and dedication. Key is knowing you gave it your best for the circumstances you were in.
Coming off that, congrats to all the runners I saw at the Five and Dime yesterday, and holy crap so many people tracked the double 5K/10K race challenge, something I still haven't done myself. Had fun getting in my own race, but absolutely loved seeing people at the finish line!
The early part of this week is a chance to practice self judgement if I do have a workout with some intensity in your calendar early on if you are coming off racing. I'd 100% say no, don't do it on a Monday and 100% your safe to do it on a Wednesday, but Tuesday evening is a gray area. Use your judgement on your recovery.
Just as an FYI, I did run the track at Pearlgate on Thursday. At that time they have a kids Run Jump Throw Wheel program on the go, but they don't need the whole track. Myself and some other Pearlgate athletes were there just using a couple lanes to go about our business. It was different for me, but I enjoyed it.
So the Mews and the Tely may be in most peoples schedules by default. Often time's it's hard to remember what people tell me they are doing or not. So I'll program in what I think, but I'll leave it up to you all to keep an eye on Final Surge and let me know if your actual plans vary.
Now is also the time to start talking fall goals. I want to try to get outlines of a plan in place for people is they know they have a nice goal for the late summer/fall. Reach out. At the very least I'll try to get the event date in your calendar as my own reminder.
The Mews 8K is this weekend. It's my favourite race in this Province. The last 4.5ish KM are downhill and don't be surprised if your overall pace is equivalent or better to your latest 5K race. I've got a preview on my site. I encourage you to race one last time before the Tely. Can get in a nice post race recovery/shakeout by running back to your vehicle after the race as well.
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May 2023
May 2023
Week of May 29th
Week of May 29th
The comment above is around two different approaches to rest/recovery. I'm a big fan of the relative rest. I have my key workout days and my long run days in my week which provide the intensity or duration stresses on my body, and those non-workout days I typically maintain a daily run of lower intensity and duration. I aim to keep that run feeling really relaxed and easy and if I'm coming off a hard workout or a race, I'll intentionally slow it down to "boring" levels to ensure it's purely focused on recovery through easy movement promoting blood flow.
These extra days also help with achieving time on feet/mileage goals in a week and stretching out that distance. I highly encourage growing the number of days you run, but you need to increase it slowly and listen to your body. Ideally any runner who is really focused on improving their performance is getting in at least a 4th run day, if not a fifth. I generally encourage in training schedules by putting in optional days for rest or an easy run. You would not start this process in the month or so prior to a goal race either. Best to ease in and increase mileage early in a training cycle so it's something to think about in early July coming out of the Tely 10.
Another training option that exists in the community is the Pearlgate Track and Field complex. PGTF is open daily in the summer months from 8 to 8. I did confirm the weekend that you can currently get track time on weekday evenings, just may be some sharing with some other groups. There is a $2 drop in fee (cash only). Track comes with the benefit of a nice consistent surface to really narrow in on what is a consistent effort over different distances, it's free from hills and traffic lights - but definitely not wind. I'm going to aim to get there myself every couple of weeks.
I think I've got most schedules entered through to the Tely now. Please take a look to make sure I've correctly included/excluded the PRC Five and Dime or Mews 8K, if there is an issue, message me and I'll adjust appropriately. If you are serious about a Tely goal, I do recommend participating in at least one of these events. Aside from being a fitness check in, they help practice your "race day routine."
Good luck everyone racing the Five and Dime this weekend. I'll see you at the start and finish line, either as a race organizor or a 5K athlete myself. Don't forget to read the preview, and feel free to reach out with any route questions. Go and sign up for something! Here is a preview of the course.
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Week of May 22nd
Week of May 22nd
Above is a paraphrase of a longer tweet that is worth the read. The key is the further expansion of a common phrase of run slow to get fast. This does a great job of putting into words the Lydiard training pyramids I've shown you before. Running fast without that base is just building an unstable tower that is ready to crumble (injuries) at any time. I'll never pass up a chance to convey that message, especially as I see it ignored/overlooked way too often.
A little late with the message this week, but coming off a long weekend and some busy work time. I spent a lot of time over the weekend solidify the path the Tely 10 for most of my athletes (integration/race specific training). A couple weeks of hard training left, hopefully 1 or 2 more races and then it's time to focus on peaking/tapering.
The next NLAA race on the road to the Tely is the PRC Five and Dime. Of course I'm a little biased to this event, but it's a really fast 5K course and reasonably fast 10K course. There is an option to race either the 5 or the 10, but you can do them both with start times at 8am and 9am. If you are looking to run a good Mews 8K the week after I only recommend putting a race effort into one or the other. I generally think the better approach if you want to do both is to race the 5K with an 5K effort, and then ease into the 10K slowly with the goal of a solid negative split after the halfway mark. Hard to keep yourself in check on a 5K if you want to focus on the 10K. Only race both at a race effort if you do not plan on doing the Mews - otherwise your body will not be recovered for an optimal performance.
Purely thinking about the Tely, I'd suggest doing 10K as a single event. It's a good race distance to bridge the gap between the local 5Ks we've had and the 10 mile Tely distance. I'll admit to being drawn in by the 5K though just because it is a really solid course to PB on a good day.
Go and sign up for something! Here is a preview of the course.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of May 15th
Week of May 15th
The above is just hammering home that the biggest holdback in increasing your mileage is how intense you are determined to do that mileage. Again, as counter intuitive as it sounds, the biggest key to increase your ability to run fast, is to increase your ability to run further and longer (the wide base of the pyramid). People who have started with me later or are struggling with consistency keep seeing the same simple weeks in front of them, it's because I'm trying to build up your mileage consistently before throwing in new challenges. Ideally I'd like to see this keep growing, but eventually I'll just learn I've hit the peak a person is going to run or they've been doing it for so long it's time to change the stimulus. I should note that other non-running, easy aerobic activity such as cycling and swimming also contribute to the base.
I've said before we have two levers to pull, duration and intensity, I'm always more willing to go a little aggressive with the duration, especially if I know I'm dealing with a smart runner who will slow things down.
After endless weeks of fog we are finally starting to see some sunshine and somewhat less miserable temperature, enjoy it. Those who've struggled with consistency, now is your time to start building a strong base to focus on fall goals.
I've talked about strength training in the past. It's good to develop a routine that works for you. I've felt improvement and injury resistance from a simple routine of 3 to 4 days a week for 15 to 20 minutes. If you have time check out this seminar that was hosted in the McMillan Training group with strength coach Anelga Tieri. LIVE Webinar POP-UP - Strength Training (vimeo.com)
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Week of May 8th
Week of May 8th
Even more quotes on pacing. I actually had this one tagged a couple weeks ago and just missed. It feels relevant after some conversations I've had post Mundy Pond 5K.
If you raced either of the 5Ks and wondering how that relates to your Tely goal (or you have a new Tely goal), feel free to reach out and I can use it to run an update on the pace sheet I keep in your Athlete Workbook. If you have an outstanding 5K goal for the year, still a great chance to hit it in the spring with the PRC Five and Dime coming up on June 4th. It's a fast course (wind pending) I'll talk more about in a couple of weeks.
Some athletes may start seeing some under-distance Time Trials in their workout schedules. These aren't meant to be run at your Tely 10 pace for a couple reasons 1) that would imply you are at race pace fitness a 1 1/2+ months out; 2) we don't race in training. They are good for doing a 90% race effort run through for practice with pacing and feel. It's a good steady effort to try to raise the lactate threshold, so it's very important to adhere to the guidance in the workout to stay at least 8 to 12 seconds/km slower than race pace. You have a lot more room to be successful in this workout (gain positive physiological adaptations) if you go too slow vs. too fast.
Ideally with these you'd do it on part of the race course or something that mimics it pretty well. Since the Tely is a point to point race, you either you mess around with car drops or have a real long cool down run, my personal plan is to use the Five and Dime 10K course as a proxy for the Tely.
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Week of May 1st
Week of May 1st
I've had a bit of a pacing theme the past few weeks. The quote also emphasis why I think it's good to run races a frequently you can, as long as it's not detrimental to training/recovery. Marathoners should be doing 5Ks. Races help develop these skills, aside from the bonus of giving me a check in on your fitness.
Speaking of pacing, I like to think I'm pretty good at it, but yesterday I did the ANE Mile. It's the third time I've done the mile race, the last was 2018. I had not fully committed to running it all week and hadn't really thought through a race strategy. At a workout on Thursday I didn't focus on determining the mile effort as much as I should have. It all led to a significant failure on the race. Went out way too fast on the first 200M. Burned out the alactic energy supply and had too big of an oxygen debt too soon. With such a short distance, I could only recover in time to try to salvage some type of reasonable time. It is unreasonable to expect success in 100% of events, the key is understanding what went wrong and learning from it.
I'd love to see all my coached athletes out on the Mundy Pond 5K course this weekend, especially if you have not raced this year. And if you do race, make sure to write me to get it on your schedule so I can make the proper adjustments. It's a solid course, and a good fitness check. Here is my course preview. Be smart on your cornering, don't add unnecessary distance.
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April 2023
April 2023
Week of April 24th
Week of April 24th
Tweet of the Week - @SteveMagness:
Saw that tweet this morning while waiting for an appointment. It summarizes the approach I take. There are no magic bullets or get fast quick schemes, it's lots of time on your feet with smart application of stimulus at the right time. There'll be some gambles with different athletes, trial and error, but you hang in and learn and develop.
Congratulations to everyone who did the ANE Boston Pizza Flat Out 5K yesterday! It was a dreary and windy stay, but it stayed dry(ish) and the temps while not ideal, weren't in sufferable for athletes - much worse for the volunteers. I was happy with the performances and added bonus of lots of Age Group placings by athletes I'm working with. Way to go everyone! The day after a race it's always good to get out for a shakeout run - important to keep that run super slow, make it boring!
I love people racing, I keep encouraging you to race at various distances because they help us check in on your fitness and track progress to goals. It's the most tangible piece of feedback I can get as a coach. To help with that, I'd love to get some race debriefs back from athletes who ran. How did you feel? How did you approach the course? What went well? What was off? Anything you want to include. Some athlete homework!
Two weeks from now is the Mundy Pond 5K (registration link below). This race has traditionally taken place two weeks after the Flat Out 5K. In my experience, having done both events in 7 different running seasons, I've always had improvement from the first 5K to the second 5K.
Side note: This was a fun look back at my development and challenges as a runner. 2015 and 2016 were interesting years in particular.
There are some pretty big swings there. Did I get fitter in two weeks? Maybe incrementally, but not enough to make a material difference. Scroll down to last weeks post and read the headline quote on pacing.
The Flat Out is the first 5K of the year, my racing memory is fuzzy. What does it take to push hard, especially on a 5K? Will to go too fast and fade? What should I feel like? All questions that race 1 helps us answer and get a feel for. Maybe I could have ran faster earlier on some of those races? Maybe I did go out too hard and faded? Either way, it was a learning experience that I was able to apply to the next event. Undoubtedly other things could play in, maybe I wasn't feeling great at one or the weather was better, it's definitely arguable which course is better, both have pros and cons, but I think the largest margin of gain is just simply pacing experience/pacing confidence.
If you are registering for Mundy Pond, please let me know, it helps me adjust your training before and after. As well the ANE Mile is this weekend. That can be a fun event to push through at a little higher than V02 Max effort. What I also don't mind about that race is that there is no good reason not to still go out and do 60 to 90 minutes of super easy shakeout/recovery running. Like Mundy, let me know if you are doing the Mile.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of April 17th
Week of April 17th
The art of pacing, as mentioned above, is a great equalizer in running. A lesser talented runner can easily run a better race because of more intelligent pacing.
The first NLAA sanctioned race of the year, the Boston Pizza Flat Out 5K is coming up on Sunday (assuming no freak snow storms like last year). I ran the route as part of my long run yesterday with a group and gave a live version of my course preview. 5Ks are meant to feel hard. They push your limits of what you can do when you feel uncomfortable, but they are also great learning experiences for how to pace. You can play with things in a 5K and not completely destroy your race (but definitely add some pain to it).
On a 5K it's often hard not to get caught up in the excitement of the race and go out a little fast. Pending the course, I don't think that's necessarily too bad, as long as you don't do anything too crazy. I try to settle into a comfort level at around the 1.5 to 2K mark and settle into cruising and just challenging the course when I need to. Saving some effort for that last mile to KM to ensure a strong finish and hopefully overtake some people who are struggling.
Pacing isn't a natural thing, it requires race experience to even begin to master it. The same book noted above provides the following three reasons on why athletes aren't good at pacing:
Pacing is hard. Nobody is instantly great at it. I've made clearly made some moderately publicized mistakes about pacing.
Experience is the best teacher of pacing skill... race to get better at pacing. It takes trial and error. Not every race will be the new best race you've done. It's impossible to expect that, but learn from the experiences.
Runner's are exceedingly dependent on external devices and this will hinder their development of body awareness, impedes the application of good judgement, and prevents runners from fully accessing how tough they are.
Number 3 is one I see a lot, and it comes back to one of my core principals of training, knowing your body and perceived effort. It's two very different things to look at your watch and suddenly believe you are going too fast vs. understanding the feedback from your body and deciding that it's all good. You make adjustments as you need to, but not because Garmin told you to.
As a reminder, if you do plan to race the Flat Out 5K and I don't have it in your calendar, please write me sooner than later.
I hope everyone has a great marathon Monday! Took a long weekend to enjoy watching the Boston Marathon. The men's elite are currently approaching 30K and just waiting to see who makes the the big move and who's pacing strategy wins out.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of April 10th
Week of April 10th
Tweet of the Week: @stevemagness
Running helps create two skills that are increasingly rare:
Some of my training schedules are beginning to move into an anaerobic training phase (or speed work phase). The goal in this phase is to make the body tired with speed. It'll prepare your body to endure the uncomfortable state of oxygen deficit, which will teach your body to create buffer enzymes for anaerobic metabolism or lactic acid. You'll become more efficient at faster paces. Key mental skills gained in this period are the development of a 'comfort level' to the discomfort of oxygen debt, as well as becoming more in tune with pace judgement.
We will achieve these adaptations/developments by running relatively short periods of time/distance at 5K efforts or faster. It's recommended that this phase of training only lasts for 2 to 6 weeks at a time. Whereas aerobic development in a cycle can happen for many months at a time (building the base of the pyramid), anaerobic development will peak, pending the athlete, in that 2 to 6 week time frame (stretching the peak of the pyramid). Typically, athletes over-train anaerobic development, which will stunt its growth and lead to increased risk of injury.
There are a few things to be mindful of when doing these workouts. First, don't try to convert your training times to predict race times. You are still in a development stage here. The goal is to achieve the physiological response described above; that's what matters.
Ensure you get adequate recovery during a workout. I've put in recommended recovery times, but they are a minimum. For optimal benefit, your aim is to fulfill the prescribed volume as best as you can at a consistent effort. The goal isn't complete 100% recovery, but pleasantly stressed.
Do not force yourself to fulfill the prescribed workout once the signs of fatigue are evident. Stop if you start to struggle to hold your pace, your time starts to fall off, or you cannot hold good form. There is no benefit to be gained from stressing your body beyond these points.
Overall, it will be important for the athlete to recognize if they may need extra recovery time after an anaerobic focused session. I will do my best to identify if an athlete may not be getting any further benefit from the phase.
We are less than two weeks away from the Flat Out 5K. If it's not on your schedule, be sure to message me and let me know. I will always encourage racing if you feel healthy. For a 5K race, you are typically looking at a 3-day recovery period where I'd avoid scheduling any higher intensity efforts. Click here for a preview of the course.
I have another book recommendation as well. I just finished reading "The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team." Olympian Kara Goucher details her experiences inside the Oregon Project as well as the shady side of athlete sponsorship. It was a fantastic read, and the levels of abuse, especially among female athletes, is horrifying.
Don't forget the Boston Marathon is on Monday and will be broadcast all day, covering the elites right to the every-person runners. Looking forward to having more runners from this group there next year.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of April 3rd
Week of April 3rd
@Alan_Couzens: You're doing too much low intensity work. #AprilFools
12 weeks to the Tely 10. Basically, all the local athletes I have are planning to run it. Either it's a current goal race for them, or it's a fitness check on their way to a bigger goal. The goal through January, February, and March has been to prepare you to get ready to train for the race. Train to train to train to race. Everything has its place, and the key for me is finding the right time to inject the right stimulus for an athlete.
In a useful crossover, it's tax season. In NL, we can claim a physical activity tax credit for all members of our household. Race registrations/club dues fit the definition of eligible costs online. So make sure to capture the costs for a little bit of cashback (8.7% of up to $2,000 for a household, but doubling in the 2023 tax year).
It was a hectic day at work, and I've been staring at this blue background for an hour, so I'm officially accepting I have writer's block tonight. As usual, reach out to me if you want a Zoom chat (workout questions, feedback, WATCH GUIDANCE) or message me with any questions that might inspire my weekly notes.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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March 2023
March 2023
Week of March 27th
Week of March 27th
Tweet of the Week: @TheLydiardWay - "Don't run hard until you can run easily." (Daws)
That tweet really forms the core of my coaching philosophy. An athlete needs to establish a strong, consistent base before you start adding any amount of increased intensity. Whether it's due to weather, life, injury, etc, some people have not established a base that makes me comfortable enough to progress them into increased higher intensity work. While you can get a boost from the higher intensity, without a proper base your risk of injury is increased and that plateau from that work can come quickly. Goal is to build the base so we can raise that peak performance as high in the air as possible.
Here is my test of who's reading these. When I updated everyone's schedules on Friday I forgot that next Friday (April 7th) is the day of the traditional "Tely Teaser." Pop me a message in Final Surge to let me know if you plan to run it and I'll arrange your schedule around that and recommend how I'd suggest your approach the run. If you do intend to make it a race effort, please let me know because I need to plan the next 10-12 days to factor in appropriate recovery. My personal approach may be a warmup period, then a 60 minute steady state effort (easy-moderate) then whatever I do for a cool down.
I had a Zoom call with an athlete the weekend and I just want to remind people they are welcome to reach out and schedule a call whenever. I love questions that help me re-enforce my coaching methodology as well as helping to provide clarity for any uncertainties.
To help with my own questions, I had a one on one session with Greg McMillan last week where I took him through my athlete approach for those focused on the Tely and to best continue on into a target mall race. On Friday I had a roundtable chat with the Lydiard coaches where we discuss athletes we are training and our experiences. Both were great development sessions for me and as always I hope to use learnings to improve what I can offer you.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of March 20th
Week of March 20th
Tweet of the Week: @SageCanaday: 🏃🏻RUNNERS —
That was a long tweet, but once again, continual re-enforcement of underlying principal of the training I'll apply. I look at 20% as the absolute max of harder effort running. If you look at many pros, they are often doing around 90% of their running at "easy effort" (remember, easy is relative to their to capabilities). This a one of the fatal flaws of amateur runners. We get too caught up in making sure our runs look good, often for our own vanity.
If a runner is missing time, or hasn't established the consistent base, I'm not going to feel comfortable assigning them anything more demanding than strides. The best way to get faster is to add more comfortable mileage and consistently. Once you can support the hard work and you are at a point where your body can develop lasting benefits from it, then it gets added in.
Personally, I've been there with training where I started high intensity work to soon (or never really took a break from it). The first run through I perceived myself as getting faster. Looking back now I realize it was a combination of two things.
First, I did get the initial anaerobic boost, it was legit gains from the work. The hard work however was being supplemented by an overall increase in my running consistency. That likely did more for me than hammering sprints on Tuesday and tempos on Thursdays every week.
Second, I trained myself to tolerate the discomfort of running hard. I was able to work harder and put up with it, but I wasn't working smart. I'm very lucky I did come out of that period with an injury. I did come out of that first "coached" training cycle with PBs, but subsequent cycles were not improving on that, I just believed I'd peaked as a runner. When I started doing these courses, I reflected on that experience and began to believe maybe I had more in me, which I have proven to myself I do. And my goal is to bring that belief to you.
The most important line in that tweet is that we can't rush speed. We need to lay the foundation for it to come to us. Then we train it at right time for maximal benefit.
Remember, reach out to me with questions. I love answering them, and they often help me form this weekly message.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of March 13th
Week of March 13th
It probably doesn't apply to everyone, but I do a lot of evening running so when the clocks change, it's the first sign of hope of better running conditions. At the very least I'll be running in snow in daylight instead of night. It's a bit of a moral boost. Need another moral boost? Go buy some sneakers. Running Free has 20% off and of course click the link below before you buy to support your third favorite running coach.
I keep meaning to mention for those that do not run with me regularly, I usually do the workouts with a group of athletes, so anytime you want to change it up with a group run, pop me a message and I'll let you know where we are meeting. 6pm on Tuesday and Thursday. I also typically do a long run on Sunday's, I'm going to try to start remembering to post those on the Iceberg webpage, but in the winter I also do a lot less pre-planning. I also typically run Monday and Wednesday after work if you want to join. These are always just easy/recovery runs, often sometimes look for adventures.
The athletes who have the coaching plan, I've been in touch with pretty regularly. The remaining athletes I try to check in on periodically, but reach out anytime with questions.
This week I want to make a book recommendation. Lauren Fleshman's biography "Good for a Girl". The book gives fantastic insight into the pressures facing a young female athlete. There is a lot of information on the risks of disordered eating, the expectations to look a specific way, the development of female vs. male athletes, and the predatory practices of large sponsors (specifically Nike). I recommend it for any runner, but also a very good read for parents with children involved in athletics.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of March 6th
Week of March 6th
Tweet of the Week: @stevemagness - The best athletes on the planet, where HIIT is specific training (i.e. middle distance runners) seldom do more than 1 high-intensity interval workout per week during their most intense training phase. So why does the average Joe think they need/can handle 1 or more HIIT per week?
Congratulations to everyone who ran the Chilly Dash 5K this weekend. Saw a lot of Iceberg athletes out there and I had a blast cheering everyone on. I had multiple people hit new 5K PBs and many others were very pleased with their performance for this time of the year. For me personally, I was one second per kilometer off my fastest 5K race pace of all time. That result is very pleasing to me in a winter race with limited training at 5K pace. In the past when I've done the Chilly Dash, 6 to 7 weeks later I had much faster race paces on the spring NLAA 5Ks.
I'm going to use the results to update athlete pace sheets in your Athlete Workbooks over this week. It's the first real check in on goal progression. I'll reach out and let you know when I've updated. Those of you that PB'ed a 5K on this race, remember you did it off consistency and aerobic training. Like the chart in my coaching overview says, 93% of your 5K effort is aerobic based, so that focus will make you faster. The anaerobic work just helps sharpen up that effort.
Next week, a number of you will progress to a 3 to 4 week phase of hill training. That's based on goals, consistency, the long run, and injury status. The focus of hill training is to prepare you for the demands of anaerobic running. In the past, it'a quite likely you have done hill sprinting repetitions, this is not the goal of these workouts. These will be done in a way to make them a plyometric exercise.
For starting out, I want you to find a hill 200 to 400m long, gentle to moderately steep hill, and go up the hill with an exaggerated motion and good posture. Focus on a good knee lift and arm swing with a swift push-off from ankle to toe. The goals here are leg power and flexibility, leg speed, and resistance to pounding. You may think this is easier than hill sprinting, but these drills are very demanding on your legs, I recommend going cautious especially in the first week as you will be at an elevated risk of injury, which is also why I would never have this training phase at a time when their are races. If the hill isn't too steep you can run down the hill faster to practice your downhill running, but if you feel there is a risk of injury just come back down slow and easy.
There are two other more advanced forms called Hill Bounding and Hill Springing, but I don't want to introduce those until you've done a couple cycles of hill training.
Hills under Lydiard have been referred to as "speedwork in the disguise." This is running based strength and conditioning vs. going to the gym and stronger legs will translate to more speed.
I've put some videos down in the links with examples of the hill resistance/steep hill running version we will be doing. As well as a couple McMillan videos on uphill and downhill running form.
HOUSEKEEPING:
McMillan Running - Uphill Running Form
McMillan Running - Downhill Running Form
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February 2023
February 2023
Week of February 27th
Week of February 27th
That tweet caught attention because it supports some concerns raised recently in a coaching course by a guest lecturer. He's anticipating in the near future, a lot of studies that show the negative impact "super shoes" have had on amateur runners regarding injuries. They place new strains on the body. My approach in my limited time wearing "super shoes" has been a easy run in them to break them in, a workout at race pace effort, then some racing. I've limited usage in training. I have not yet worn them for a marathon though so I suspect I might want to use them for at least one long slow run on top of a decent marathon simulation run.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I was not sorry to see the Chilly Dash postponed due to the cold weather. That was not going to be pleasant, especially since we had a really frigid headwind as well. Hopefully this weekend brings some more suitable weather for a good run. From people talking about the postponement, I did see a number of runners who I am coaching who had not told me they were doing the event. Make sure to let me know these things so I can adjust your schedules accordingly.
While on scheduling, I'll give you an update on the process I've settled into. For each runner, once you let me know a goal race, I generally map out a high level view to that event. What systems I want to target and when. Last year I was putting the full schedule into people's calendars, but I also got reminded that a schedule should be written in pencil and not ink. It should be easily eraseable and updatable. When I decided I wanted to change something up, it was a lot of work redoing one or more athletes whole schedules.
This year I've settled into mostly updating the schedules for the next two weeks. The benefit this has given me, is that it's having me look back at the athlete's recent history more and I'm modifying the schedules more proactively. Weather stop you from doing a long run the last two weeks? Well I'm not going to continue a ramp up of your long run times, I'm going to stall out that progression just a little to make sure you don't get hurt. I can also adapt more easily for races/events that pop up, life events, and as we get closer to a key event, work on predicting if I need to slow or accelerate peaking work for an individual.
HOUSEKEEPING:
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Week of February 20th
Week of February 20th
Sharing more winter tweets. We keep needing the reminder. Between the weather and a head cold, last week was my lowest mileage/TOF total in months. March 11th the clocks change, that's one sure turning point for runners mentally. Strategically it's also where I start shifting some of the athlete plans into the next phase.
I had a Lydiard Coaches Catchup session yesterday, in light of the World Cross Country Championships taking place this past weekend, the topic was on the value of cross country running. I get a little bit of wistfulness when I hear about the XC programs over in the UK, from youth to masters, there is a cross country season available to athletes. Many of the coaches seem to use it as a key part of the aerobic basebuilding phase. They don't necessarily train to excel in these races, but they do the work, get the challenging runs in, give and honest effort in the races, but the goal is base and strength building for the track/road racing season. One specific example brought up by a coach was for athlete who competed on February 4th at the New Balance Grand Prix indoor track event in Boston (broadcasted on NBC). I'm still waiting for an email with the exact copy of her schedule, but basically she went from a short pure base building phase, to a base building with a couple cross country races, then 4 weeks of hills for strength into the race, a very short taper (with cross Atlantic travel) and she topped her PB for 1500M Indoors. She did very little pure anaerobic work. She'll save this for the prep for the outdoor track season.
I guess what I'm getting at two things. 1) All the running we do has benefits, even if it doesn't look directly related to the target event; and 2) I wish we had we had a larger cross country program here than some school aged races and one open NLAA event. With the University Atlantic Championships happening here this fall, perhaps we might see a couple extra events. I know I keep training to brain storm some possible mile to 2K loops that could be used for a "fun run."
The Chilly Dash is this Saturday and hopefully we have some decent conditions for it. Love to see some runners come out and lay down some really great times for the time of the year and without race specific training. It would support the point I was making above. If conditions aren't great, don't focus on time, focus on the people and "friendly" rivalries. I've written a preview of the course that I linked below.
I also found an article on Canada Running with some tips of cold weather racing (linked below as well). The bottom three points are pretty key. Warm up, stay warm as best you can, and like I said above, you may need to reframe success a little.
Just a reminder if you need to alter your schedule and you have questions about moving some things around, always reach out. For some people racing I have 400M at 5K effort intervals, if you can't safely do them outside, the Field House is always a great option. Just modify them for two laps around the track, that'll be closer to 500M, but reduce the number of intervals you do. Always ways to usefully modify.
HOUSEKEEPING:
7 Tips of Winter Racing - Canada Running
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Week of February 13th
Week of February 13th
Again, another tweet about consistency as the winter has finally been starting to hit us on the Avalon. Keep doing your best to keep up that consistency because the time put in here, really pays off once we hit the race seasons.
What I do want to focus on quickly this week is flexibility. The schedules of the different athletes I coach are varied, the steady thing is that unless you have a March/April goal race, every one is focused on the Base Building/Aerobic Base training. Primary goal is to be getting out regularly, doing your best to get the long runs in, and occasionally some short sprinkles of harder effort, depending on where you are at.
A training plan serves as a guide. It is written in pencil so things can easily be altered, moved or erased. I don't write a 12 week running plan and expect everything to be done like clockwork. From my side of things, I've been doing my best to adjust the workouts for each athletes for the upcoming two weeks. If I see you've been missing some time, I'm going to stall incremental duration or intensity efforts. If you've been injured, well once you are cleared to return I'll help you along there rather than jump back in too fast. On Friday my focus was on athletes who were running the Chilly Dash 5K. Pending the athlete I put in some runs to get you used to the 5K effort over the next couple of weeks.
How can you, the athlete, be flexible with your calendar? This week it looks like we'll face some weather issues. Some of my Chilly Dash athletes have a fartlek workout (with the intention to practice your 5K race effort) early in the week. Tuesday (a very common workout night) is looking like a washout. If you can't get to an indoor track or you are like me and don't have the patience for the treadmill, how should you as an athlete adjust? Well rule number one, is that you avoid doing workouts on back to back days. So if you push Tuesday's to Wednesday, and you have something harder than a easy run the next day, you need to make a choice. You can shift the whole week or you can just erase one of those activities from the calendar. In this case with a 5K race a couple weekends out, I'd be inclined to make sure I kept the chance to do some 5K effort work. Use judgement or reach out to me and confirm what you are thinking.
Personally, for me as an athlete here is where I made some judgement calls last week. Tuesday night, I skipped putting strides into my workout because I just felt fatigued from a difficult weekend. On Thursday night I skipped my planned steady state run because the conditions were nice at Three Pond Barrens to take a group on a winter trail run. There is a limited period of time I can those runs, so I took advantage. I did end up doing the steady state run on Friday. It was not intended when I left the house, but I felt good and hit a section of trailway that I could safely accelerate on.
Regarding the Chilly Dash, if I haven't put that race in your calendar, it means I don't know you are racing it. Reach out to me if you are. Within the next week I'll write up a course preview for that one. I tend to focus more on the NLAA races over the "fun run" 5Ks like the Winter Sprinter, Frosty Festival, St. Paddy's Day Runs etc. The NLAA courses are typically meant to be raced, they are sanctioned courses that have been certified. You have my go ahead to register and use them as time trial fitness checks, but I typically won't change up a schedule for them and advance, I'd just make sure your 3 days after (typical 5K recovery time) didn't have anything heavy. I do have a soft spot the Chilly Dash though. It's at a nice time for a winter fitness check and it's a really good course.
Speaking of the NLAA, go and pay the $25 to become a member. Linked below the benefits. Do 5 NLAA races and it's basically a free membership.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Seven Lessons for Adjusting Your Plan - Greg McMillan
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Week of February 6th
Week of February 6th
Like the tweet above says, the key is consistency. The winter months are hard here, this past week has been rough between cold weather, high winds, and snow/rain combos. It's hard to get motivated for winter running, and really hard to out to have killer workouts. That is why I changed my approach to winters to maximize the coaching lessons I've learned. It can be hard enough to just get out, so I'm adding the strain of a tough workout on top of it. There is enough to battle. Use this time wisely though, and make that effort to log time. If you can't get outside, get to a treadmill or an indoor track, but don't use it as an excuse not to log these important base building kilometers. The time on your feet now is key for preparing you for 8 to 12 week window before races when the race specific work begins. Outside of the indoor running options, elliptical, cycling, pool running and XC skiing are all great alternatives that will still help build aerobic fitness.
The winter is also a great time to start developing some basic strength routines. When I'm doing good, and I get my 15 to 20 minute routine in 4 days a week so go, I starting feeling really strong when I run. I typically see a noticeable decrease in the little niggles of that have been hanging out and grow more confident. I use a lot of simple body weight and banded exercises, not complex equipment required. Bulgarian split squats, glute bridges, monster walks, speed skaters, and single leg jump variations are all regularly seen exercises. For those needing a little guidance, once again, I highly recommend the Recover Athletics app, which is available to Strava subscribers. You get choose for pre-set routines and build your own based on available equipment. The app has video demonstrations to help guide you.
Once last tidbit, I had a short conversation about my preference to learn to run by perceived effort vs. other metrics such as pace, heart rate or power meters. In the end, the body is always the most reliable and immediate feedback. 3rd party metrics are great companions, but you need to be aware of your body to truly run a great race. I've linked to an article by Matt Fitzgerald below.
HOUSEKEEPING:
A Power Meter is Like A Thesaurus - Matt Fitzgerald
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January 2023
January 2023
Week of January 30th
Week of January 30th
As we progress along our winter stage/endurance/base/work off holiday regrets training, I will start to slowly mix in some short periods of higher intensity. You've already seen this with strides (also mentioned if the above tweet), but two other common ones will be fartlek intervals and steady state runs.
Fartlek's at this point are a term familiar to most runners. It's a Swedish word for "speed-play". At their purest, they are intervals during a run, lasting from 30 to 120 seconds where a runner changes gears and accelerates to a higher intensity. You can throw out the time base and pick a visual reference ie. tree in the distance, a hill, a down hill, to a building, etc. You are just changing things up during the run. The recovery would be at least long enough to let your heart rate and body recover from the prior one.
North American training culture has made them a little more regimented. A frequent version you'll see in a one minute higher intensity interval followed by a 1 minute recovery interval repeated over a stretch of time in the middle of a workout. Typically they'd be prescribed in a pace range of 5K to one mile race pace (see Housekeeping section for an article on Understanding Race Pace Relativity).
My approach will be a mix of traditional and North American. During the earlier stages it'll be more loosely defined. In race-specific stages they would be a more regimented workout. Also good time to note, that I will be reviewing the fartlek workouts that may appear in some people calendars this week and revising, so make sure your watch is synced before any workout.
The other workout that most of you should start seeing appear is what I refer to as a steady state run, but is also known as an out and back run or progressive calibration run. These runs have fallen from the wayside in popularity compared to a higher intensity tempo run, but are one of the most effective runs you can do to raise your aerobic/lactate thresholds. The handful I did in the fall half marathon prep were major confidence builders. I've been doing them weekly in the new year and can see the benefits after each.
Here is a video from McMillan describing the steady state run. For your first ones, you'll warm up, then aim to speed up, but maintain a comfortable pace for around 25 minutes (your 2:00:00 to 2:30:00 race pace). Lydiard would do these on a flat-ish out and back route with a goal of being slightly faster at a relatively similar intensity on the way back. These runs will be in the high end of your aerobic training zone and as your progress through training will push towards a max pace of just below the lactate threshold (1:15:00 race pace). As you do these runs, you should feel more comfortable each time and start seeing increased paces (or decreased perceived effort) over the runs.
The reason I've failed to utilize very well myself is in group training, it means you'll get pretty spread out with a wide range of paces. This is another place where doing them as an out and back will help. If you set out for 30 minute steady state interval, you run out 15 minutes then turn back to start. A slower paced runner will be behind, but if they turn at 15 minutes now they are in the lead. If everyone does the workout right, you will all arrive at the start/finish around the same time. Locally, the trailway is great to use for these workouts. In the Winter it's a bit trickier, so I recommend either a reasonable loop around 1.5 to 3KM in length or long flat stretch of road (2 to 4KM) that you can go back and forth on. They really are a must do if you want to improve all your race times. Remember again, at this time of the year, the goal is still to keep them on the lower end race pace range.
Just a reminder, I have availability if you want to schedule a meeting to discuss anything training related.
For those who aren't signed up for any 2023 programs with me, I will be starting to trim down the mailing list in February.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Understanding Race Pace Relativity
McMillian Running - Steady State Runs Video
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Week of January 23rd
Week of January 23rd
Tweet of the Week: @DavJankowski "Your body knows two things 1) duration and 2) intensity.
That tweet is something I'll say to runners quite often but it can never be said enough.
Locally we had a solid reminder of what winter is here just two days after being able to run in shorts. It's a good time to give the reminder that sometimes, whether it's the weather, work, personal issues, etc you just cannot execute your schedule. The key is to remember that the schedule is not written in stone, it's written with a pencil. Adapt it to life where you can, but sometimes you just need to abandon and move on.
This is especially important when we start doing more intense workouts. You don't try to cram it into a week with multiple higher intensity runs when you will not have time to properly recover between the efforts. You move on. Whenever there is a question, just reach out for guidance.
I'm always trying to soak up more knowledge to pass onto you guys. I took advantage of the snowy weather on Saturday and attended an event hosted by Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Endurance Team. Matt is a fantastic author (and runner). I've been lucky enough to hear him speak a couple of times through the training courses.
There were 5 hours of short sessions to attend. I got to listen to some wonderful speakers and topics. Speakers (and topics) included: former US Marathon record holder Keira D'Amato (inspiration and motivation), Marco Altini (heart rate variability), NAZ Elite coach Ben Rosario (threshold training), Riley Nickols (athlete mental health), Dan Daly (mobility, strength and training for endurance athletes), Matt Fitzgerald (man vs. machine coaching), and a number of others. I'm going to try to pass on some of the key learnings over time.
Sunday afternoon I had a Lydiard Coaching catch-up. Our topic wasn't set for the session it was more of an open mic night, so I did have a couple questions I was able to get answered. These sessions are fantastic as they are a great forum to interact with other coaches of varying levels. I particularly like the re-enforcement that you do not need to have been a high level athlete to be a great coach, in fact more often than not, elite athletes end up making poor coaches.
I also have a McMillan session from Thursday that I was not able to attend, but I do have a recording, the topic was "Coaching Older Runners."
I'm constantly working to improve what I have to offer you all.
HOUSEKEEPING:
The Problem with Intensity: https://www.8020endurance.com/the-problem-with-intensity/
Running Free Affiliate Link: https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
View this post online (Bookmark!): https://www.icebergtrainingteam.com/Resources/trainingnotes
Week of January 16th
Week of January 16th
Actually recommend reading the whole thread with that tweet, some good stuff. Link available on website post.
We've been working on consistency so far in the new year, but over the next couple weeks plans will start adding in little bits of very short speed work. I always call them strides, but they are also known as wind sprints, pickups, striders or stride outs.
I'll use strides throughout a training plan, starting with giving athletes a taste of speed in the aerobic build up. A stride is basically a fast acceleration for a short period of time (10 to 20 seconds) that work to develop your neuromuscular system, leg turnover, and really help with a big finishing kick or any courses where you have a 180 degree turnaround. We keep them short because we do not lactic acid to build up the way it would during a longer speed interval as lactic acid inhibits the nervous system and interferes with the adaptations that we want to occur.
You'll typically do strides during an overall easy run. After an adequate period of warmup you'll accelerate quickly. You can use time, I typically program 10 to 15 seconds in the workouts, or you can do from a tree to another tree, whatever you want. Typically it's a very fast effort, but not necessarily an all out sprint, but definitely a faster effort. McMillan would say to run them at a 1:00 to 6:00 minute race pace. The goal is to run fast, but always stay under control and focus on excellent running form.
After each stride you must jog easily for at least 30 seconds. I typically say a minute to a minute and a half, it can be longer though. The goal is to recover properly so your muscles are ready to execute the next stride. The biggest mistake you can make is not allowing adequate recovery and forcing the body into an anaerobic state.
If done right, with adequate recovery between the repeats, a strides workout will not add any additional recovery time to your run. They are very versatile, there are benefits to doing a few prior to a sustained speed workout, in the middle of your run or at the end of a run, and they are always a regular for me the day before a race and during my pre-race warmup.
HOUSEKEEPING:
The Most Basic Law of Training (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FtEthKcSQtFywZuq6VjuhsbBcyA1iRP2/view?usp=sharing)
Running Free Affiliate Link (Boxing Week Sales Continues!): https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
View this post online (Bookmark!): https://www.icebergtrainingteam.com/Resources/trainingnotes
Week of January 9th
Week of January 9th
Tweet of the Week: @LydiardsWay "Measurements can be stressful. They can become obsessive. Running should first and foremost be a stress reliever. Take your eye off the digital readouts. Immerse yourself in how you feel and what you are seeing. Running should be a positive experience."
The new year is officially kicked off, I'm seeing a lot of great runs on Final Surge. I'm not looking at pace. I'm looking for what appears to be well controlled and appropriate efforts for the current intention of our running. It's a great time to focus on stress free and enjoyable running. It should be easy to get positive feedback on runs this time of the year. Just get out there, run, take in the sights or enjoy your company, and come home with plenty of energy still.
For those who are on the full coaching plan, I have updated the training log in your workbooks with this weeks mileage and time on feet. There is a chart on the page next to it that will grow as the year progresses and will be come a useful coaching/training tool. Once we start to add higher intensity work in the week as well I plan to track an estimate of your high intensity mileage vs. overall mileage. Those on the other plans can add in this data as well to your own workbook.
I'm going to take advantage of the weather tomorrow night and offer a Zoom session to show how to navigate Final Surge as this year my goal is to leave people with more control than they had last year. I can walk some people through any issues they may be having as well, and answer general questions. If we have time I might be able to dive into some watch stuff as well (always useful). I'll host that at 7:30 NL Time and you can access it by clicking here: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85475608883?pwd=cVl5VDRDam5sa3YxbjdUZW5FZnBSZz09.
HOUSEKEEPING:
McMillan Running: Battling Your Negative Tendencies (http://surl.li/eiqko)
Nutrients That Accelerate Healing: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hf3P8mw5OyInGZw7odydyghmhk2NN4cd/view?usp=share_link
Running Free Affiliate Link (Boxing Week Sales Continues!): https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
View this post online (Bookmark!): https://www.icebergtrainingteam.com/Resources/trainingnotes
Week of January 2nd
Week of January 2nd
Welcome everyone to the official start of the 2023 Training Year! To people that have already re-registered, thank you. I have also sent out a number of Athlete Workbooks, so if have any questions or have completed them, pop me a message.
This year I'm going keep these weekly messages more general about training. I will feature topics and tips and information about specific types of workouts. I'll also keep a log of them on the website with a link (recommend favoriting the link at the bottom), I've left it out of the site navigation because it's a perk of paying me. Someday perhaps I can afford a site where it's password protected:)
I learned a lot on 2022 through completing a couple coaching certification courses as well as just the trail and error of applying those learnings to group. One message that you'll get sick of hearing from me, simply because I can't read any running literature myself without seeing it, is the value of easy runs and long slow runs. This is the bread butter of training, the foundation. The key to building sustainable speed in race season and injury resistance.
In the past I'd come off a little break after key fall race then hit January going right into 200M sprints or 1KM repeats or heavy tempo runs like I was seeing in the training books. All this did was plateau my anaerobic system by the end of February/March. Created this feeling that I was as fast as I could ever be. What was I missing? The fact the schedules in these books were largely just showing me the race-specific training. They assumed I'd done the prep work. Too much high intensity too soon limited my development in the past.
Now January and February for largely all the athletes I'm planning for is to lay the ground work. Whatever you want to call it, base building, endurance, aerobic, it's all the same. The first few weeks are about getting consistent in the new year and getting the long run up to reasonable duration. Then I'll start adding in strides, fartleks, and steady state runs. These workouts will be a enough to prep us for some fitness checks at the end of February.
The focus is an low intensity running. The talk test (described in athlete workbook) is the simplest way to gauge this. It ignores all the fancy gadgets and goes off how you feel. We don't train to impress people on Strava in January, we train to be ready to perform at our best between the start and finish lines on race day. For those new, it's a process and it can feel counter-intuitive. For those who went through last year, I think largely the results spoke for themselves.
HOUSEKEEPING:
Message me if you'd like to schedule a zoom chat regarding training.
View this post online (Bookmark!): https://www.icebergtrainingteam.com/Resources/trainingnotes
Coaching Overview (Bookmark!): https://www.icebergtrainingteam.com/training/overview
Running Free Affiliate Link (Boxing Week Sales Continues!): https://www.runningfree.com/?affkey=f91f6244a38311a9868bea30a11217cf
If you have any questions reach out to me through Final Surge, e-mail: markdidham@gmail.com; or Facebook PM.
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