John "Hadd" Walsh Training Part 7

THE AEROBIC WORK SESSIONS IN PHASE I

OK, this is about the "easy tempo" work sessions that are guided by HR. I said earlier there are four work effort ranges:

Easy - 70-75% HRmax or slower
D - 80-83%
C - 82-85%
B - 85-88%
A - 87-90%

The idea in this work is to progressively (and patiently) build to the point where you can run up to 75 minutes continuously at level A with no loss in pace, and finih the session knowing you could continue if necessary. That pace will be fairly close to (perhaps a little quicker than) M-pace.

I'll briefly describe how this work progresses. First, some commentary about volume.

To be a serious distance runner, you need to build to a fairly serious volume. What this means depends on a lot of things (age and experience, relative ability, target event, etc), but for a top level athlete aiming toward the longer distance events, this MUST include some training time north of 100 MPW, perhaps much more.

For less serious athletes, how hard/much you are prepared to work may depend on how seriously you take your goals. You can run well on lower volume, but you can't reach your best without hitting some serious volume at some points in training.

So, how do these "easy tempo" sessions work...? Pretty simple in theory, but takes some work to get the hang of it and do it right.

Let's say the athlete has HRmax of 200, just to make the math easy. This gives us:

Easy - 140-150 bpm
D - 160-166
C - 164-170
B - 170-176
A - 174-180

After first building to some reasonable volume of only easy running (I used 50 MPW as a threshold, but this could be 80-90 MPW or whatever depending on experience etc), introduce two sessions at level D, plus a longer run.

The longer run might be something like 75-90 minutes easy, or could be longer if the overall volume is fairly high.

The aerobic work sessions at level D would start something like:

Tuesday - 1-2 miles easy jog warmup, 2 x 15 minutes at sub-166 bpm with 5 minutes easy jog rest, 1-3 miles easy jog c/d

Thurs/Friday - 1-2 mile w/u, 20-25 mins @ sub-166, 1-3 c/d

Sun - 75-90 mins easy

all other running easy

The first time running at 160-166 bpm, the runner will find the pace may start to drift a bit toward the end of the faster running. If so, keep the work sessions about the same total length until pace is locked in at that HR, then build to longer sessions.

Over the course of several weeks, the sessions at 160-166 bpm will progress something like this (all sessions with easy jog w/u and c/d, and 5-10 mins easy jog rest between work bits):

2 x 15
1 x 20-25
2 x 20
1 x 30
2 x 25
3 x 15
1 x 40-45
3 x 20
2 x 30
2 x 40
1 x 60
2 x 45
1 x 70-75

This is just a sample list. Some runners will be able to work to the top fairly quickly without hitting all these sessions, and some runners will need to spend more time working through.

When you've reached 60 minutes at this level without seeing pace fade toward the end while keeping HR under 166, you can start to introduce sessions at 164-170 bpm.

The process at this new level is exactly the same. Start with smaller session and work your way up, building toward the point where you have "locked in" pace at this effort and can run (effortlessly) at this HR at a constant pace.

Same again for 170-176 and 174-180, move up into those levels when you've "mastered" the lower levels, but not before.

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This base training takes time and patience, but if done right, you come out the far end an aerobic animal, tireless and strong.

There is a temporary loss of "speed." If you try to race a 5k at the end of this training you'll finish feeling "slow" and unable to accelerate like normal, but you'll also finish feeling like to could carry on around again and do 10k at nearly the same pace.

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OK, that's probably all I'll write about Phase I. I'll say a little bit about race-specific training when I get some more time

One brief initial post about race-specific preparation.

I'm not going to try to give an all-encompassing "formula" or cookbook, just try to give a sense of the training.

The specific approach depends on a very wide range of factors, including target event, age and experience, and the runner's individual characteristics and personal considerations.

One of the most important considerations is "type," meaning relatively more or less FT or ST. John and Antonio Cabral exchanged some interesting discussion on this topi here:

www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=2375989

We like to talk about the FT runner and ST runner as if they are black and white. In reality, there is a complete spectrum, with the true FT guys being sprinters, and true ST guys being ultramarathoners. When I use these terms in a discussion of distance runners, I'm really disntinguishing between runners with either more natural speed, or more natural endurance, among distance runners.

I suppose for completeness it would probably better to discuss three broad "types" as more-FT, "normal," and more-ST. "Normal" distance runners would naturally develop race PB profiles that match the race time calculators (or have fairly consistent VDOT across events, if you like). More-FT runners will hae better short race times, and more-ST runners will perform "better" at longer distances.

The more-FT runner generates more lactate at all paces tha the comparable more-ST runner. This is a double-edged sword... this runner can generate more power at all paces, but also get themselves into trouble more quickly by drawing on tha power at the wrong time. For example, a hard pace early in the race will weed out the more-FT types, who will tend to die much harder from starting too fast.

Young, inexperienced or otherwise undertrained runners will always have more-FT characteristics (i.e. better speed, crappy endurance). For the purposes of this training, it's the characteristics that determine the approach to (current) training.

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Work sessions in race specific training employ a wide variety of work sessions. For the most part, sessions are controlled by pace, not HR. This is because most (but not all) sessions are at faster than M-pace, where the HRM is useless to guide effort.

There are four primary variables you can change to vary the nature of a workout:

* pace

* repetition length

* interval (rest) length and type

* volume

John's training uses a wider range of most of these than I've seen in other training approaches. I'll try to work through these in some sort of organized way, but first a few very general comments to build context.

* easy running still forms the bulk of the training, and is still 70-75% HRmax or slower

* most weeks there are two hard work sessions plus a longer run

* the longer run might include a decent chunk of "easy tempo" running every second week

* nearly all work sessions are meant to be finished knowing you could complete another repetition if coach insisted. Not "wanting" to do another one, but knowing you could. Sessons should leave you feeling tired but invigorated, not exhausted and spent

* a small proportion of sessions may be assigned with "all out" short-ish repetitions (e.g. 6 x 150 w/250 walk rest, 5 x 1000 @ 3k pace on 3-5 mins standing rest). These are much more rare in the FT runner's training

* the FT runner needs to take much more care to keep all sessions primarily aerobic, which is mostly accomplished through the use of short active recovery between repeats (often 200m jog rest)

* it's OK to bail on a work session if it's not coming as expected. Better to err on the side of too little than too much

* all races are treated as serious tests, and are tapered for. With a race on a weekend, the last big work session would be Tuesday/Wednesday. Maybe some very light work (short group of strong strides) on the Thursday

* all races are recovered from. After 5k on the weekend, no Tuesday session. After HM, nothing strong till the long run the following weekend

* warmups before sessions are fairly serious, aiming to get the body ready for the work. Usually 3+ miles with some light aerobic work (say 800m brisk), and often including 10 x 100/100 "fast"/float

* cooldowns are serious too, usually 3+ miles. These will be all easy running after primarily aerobic work sessions. After the really hard stuff (say 8-10 x 400 "hard" on 3-4 minutes standing rest), you might do more like 5 miles with 2-3 of "easy tempo"

More later....

John "Hadd" Walsh Training Part 6

Hey John, I think I did answer your question. Best possible average HR for the marathon, in a well trained athlete, is 88-90% HRmax.

I'll have to look back at the bit you've quoted to see why the numbers seem to be taken out of context, I'm not sure if there is an error there in the original writing or in the editing of the thread (by whoevere compiled that pdf version of it). I'll try to find time later to have a look.

Wetcoast

(1) AT and in that area of effort is much more effective at developing the aerobic system than slower running is however, I haven't seen any definitive math on the difference.

(2) I assume there must be a second phase after Phase 1, that deals with short Vo2 max and longer AT, but still not a total "quality phase" would that be correct? Sorry if you posted it before....can re-read everything right now.

@Wetcoast

Chris,

(1) this is a key point of departure. I don't want to debate the relative importance of different components, I just want to explain the training, but the idea here is to focus FIRST on the slower, easier efforts, "squeezing from the bottom of the toothpaste tube," as it were. There is faster running in due course, but not (generally) faster than M-pace during the phase 1 base training.

(2) We'll get to faster training eventually, but I won't use terms like VO2max.

OK, now some more descriptive details to illustrate the Phase 1 training

So first, a few words on EASY RUNNING.

This is, ironically, the hardest part of this training. Most people who read this will probably dismiss it out of hand. Which is fine, I'm not trying to sell anybody, just trying to explain.

Almost nobody will be able to will themselves to do this properly, so reader beware...

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First, a few pseudo-scientific words on what this is meant achieve.

For most novice runners, and even experienced runners, the pace that feels most natural, and hence intuitively "easy" is pretty close to marathon pace. With a runner for whom this is the case, slowing down by 2-3 minutes per mile feels "more difficult."

This is because the the much slower running engages some slow twitch fibres that are never used in normal (faster) running, and are hence untrained.

By doing most running much easier than might seem natural, and also by doing longer runs, you engage and start to train these fibres, andbring them into the "team" of fibres you engage at all faster speeds.

By slowly working upward in effort at progressively faster efforts (through the HR-guided "easy tempo aerobic work sessions), you slowly build a complete foundation of aerobic fitness that draws on ALL the muscle fibres your maker gave you.

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I mentioned that Phase 1 starts by first building to at least 50 mpw (can be more in a more experienced athlete who is already doing higher mileage), of only EASY running before introducing the aerobic work sessions (that I've called "easy tempo" and are guided by HR.

Easy running means 70-75% of HRmax or SLOWER.

For virtually everyone, this will, at least at first, be much slower than they're used to. Over time, this pace will increase, as fitness builds, eventually approaching the middle of the range of Daniels' E-pace, give or take.

For untrained (or incompletely) runners, this effort will be two things: very slow, and awkward, even relatively "difficult" and uncomfortable.

That's one of the counterintuitive parts, but in fact, if running at that effort feels "hard" (which it may), this is actually a sign that you can benefit quite a bit from doing this right, because it's revealing that you hae a whole bunch of muscle fibres that are untrained, never firing in your normal running (because you never run this slowly).

Anyway, I digress. Start running at this effort every day, until you get to some decent volume of only easy running, say 2-4 weeks, before starting to introduce the ("easy tempo" HR-guided) work sessions.

For some runners this effort at first will be ridiculously slow, and you might even have to walk up hills to keep HR in range. If pace is slower than something like 8:00/mile, or more than say 2:30-3:00/mile slower than 5k pace, then let the HR creep up a bit, but only at first. Over time as fitness improves the pace at this effort will get faster and this concern will go away.

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At the end of phase 1, M-pace will feel like very strong aerobic running, but won't feel naturally "easy." By contrast, 70-75% HRmax running will feel very natural and smooth, no longer awkward and "hard," and will likely be something like 75-90s/mile slower than M-pace (ish).

This is the opposite of how most people would be at the start, with M-pace feeling nearly "easy" and slow running feeling awkward, uncomfortable and "hard."

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This easy running, as I've just described it, is a key ingredient, perhaps the most important one. If you can't (or won't) get this right, then all the rest of the training I'll describe won't yield the results you'd want, at least not in the context of THIS training system

I'll describe working through the progression of HR-guided aerobic work sessions to wrap up this discussion of Phase 1, as soon as I get the time