Mark: Hello, welcome back to Triathlon Training Explained. Today, I am tackling a
rather unusual question. Are you running too fast? I know you have an old question given
that so many of us are aspiring to be faster runners and be able to run fast. However,
running too fast too often could actually be slowing you down. Today, I'm going to be
explaining why. [music]
Male Speaker: What on earth am I on about here? Well, as I've alluded to, already, so
many of us are striving to become faster runners and be able to run fast, but with that does
tend to come a slight obsession with average run pace is how far we can run in a set period
of time, and so on. I bet everyone out there knows someone that's got a slight ego thing
when you run with them. They just want to press you with how fast they can run. We do
all know that person. Unfortunately, all of this does have some
slight negative side effects, one of which being the amount of stress that you can place
on your body. This can then lead to higher levels of fatigue that can result in over-training,
and possibly even injury or illness. Now this fatigue is quite an important one, because
this can then start having a knock-on effect to the rest of our training. Our quality or
harder runs that we should be doing per week, we're arriving at those just tired with more
fatigue in the body, we're just not going to get the most out of them.
Then, this can result in you becoming what we call a diesel engine. Now, a diesel engine
is someone that can sustain and hold a good pace, but they just don't have that variety
or variants in their pace at all. They really lack that top-end speed. What am I getting
at here? Well, you need to slow down. I know, I know it sounds pretty daft, but actually
there's a lot of benefits to doing this that then could result in you being able to run
faster on race day. I know that sounds pretty odd, but let me
explain. Three of the fundamental principles of training that allow you to do anything,
we've got specificity, variability and overload. They manifest themselves in running terms
as three key sessions. We see a lot of runners doing the speed session, the tempo session
and the long steady run. They hit all aspects of fitness and speed for us as runners. The
speed session real high intensity, the tempo run for a lot of people tends to be around
race pace, and then the long steady run as the name suggests, real nice steady miles
on the field. The idea of this is that we're arriving at those sessions, feeling fresh,
ready to go to get the most quality out of them.
Particularly so for the speed session and the tempo session and to some degree for the
long steady run. That means any additional runs around those should be really nice and
easy. It should be steady and a nice easy conversational pace, including, I guess, for
the long steady run too. To help me explain all of this in more detail again and as to
how you should start implementing it. I'm actually about to head out for a run. Now,
my one bit of exercise per day that we're allowed as per our government guidelines.
Fortunately, I do live out in the sticks here, so I'm just going to head off on one of my
usual trails where I literally never see anyone, bring you along for the ride or have a chat
as we go. [music]
Male Speaker: What a beautiful day. I hope you are wondering why all these funny posts
are behind me. That is, well, hopefully, 5000 trees that I planted, but not all of them.
I planted about 10 or 20 of them, but my local village and some helpful others have planted
them all. I'm hoping that big field here is going to be a thriving forest. Back to video,
I digressed a bit. You might be wondering, well how fast is too fast? Well, this depends
on a couple of things, your current fitness level and how often you run.
I have to get a little bit sciency here for a second. Everyone has what's called a aerobic
threshold and an anaerobic threshold. Your aerobic threshold is the point at which you
start to produce lactate above its resting state. It stays at a nice steady level. You
can think of this maybe like a five or six out of 10 intensity scale, or around or just
below your marathon pace. Then, your anaerobic threshold is the point
at which your body starts to produce lactic acid at such a rate that your body can't keep
up with it or remove it, and therefore your body becomes overwhelmed with lactic acid.
This is the point at which it hurts and you start to slow down for a lot of people. This
is around five k pace or faster. Now, what this means is that for your easy
runs, you want to be keeping an eye on that aerobic threshold and staying just below it,
if anything, so below that 5 or 6 out of 10. This should feel really quite easy, a nice
conversational pace if you were having to run with someone else, obviously not at the
moment. It's for a lot of people quite a shock, it's a lot easier than they're expecting,
but stick with it, because that then will mean you'll have more energy to put into those
quality sessions and get the most out of them. Now, I can actually talk from experience a
little bit here because earlier last year, I needed to prepare myself for a half-marathon
in a fairly short amount of time, just a couple of months. I decided to adopt a rather silly
training method. That was essentially doing tempo runs in every single one of my runs.
I wasn't running loads, but it was enough that, I got myself fit. I ran a good half-marathon,
but my body took a real beating in the process so much so I actually picked up my first running
related injury from that. I've been plagued with it since.
I really wouldn't advise that also as other knock-on effects in that, if you are doing
other sports, swimming or cycling, it's going to start affecting that because you're going
to be tired from the runs that you've done. Also, it may start to have knock-on effect
in your day-to-day life with work or your family because your mood and your energy levels
are going to be lower and your body is going to be stressed.
Now, the preferred method which we're discussing here today is essentially the polarized training
method in which your hard sessions are hard, your easy sessions are easy. Actually, the
vast majority of your training will end up being easy, and it's just a small quantity
will be hard. If you're actually part of a triathlon club or running club, you will often
have certain sessions during the week, like a track session or maybe you do the part run
on a weekend. This is your opportunity to really hone in on those, save your energy
for those, get the quality out of them and do them well.
Okay, I can see what you're about to ask me here now. That is, "Well, what does that mean
for me? How much hard running should I be doing versus easy running?" It's a good question.
If we use this polarized training method we've just been talking about, it's commonly agreed
that you should be spending around 10% to 20% of your weekly volume above your aerobic
threshold. Then, around 5% to 10% above your anaerobic threshold. The rest of your training
per week should be nice and easy, and very steady at that conversational pace that we
were talking about. If we're using, for example, say, you run
40k per week, that's going to mean that you should be spending around 8k per week above
your aerobic threshold. That could be something like 4 by 2k at tempo, and then around 4k
of your weekly volume above your anaerobic threshold, that could be a session such as
10 by 400 meters. Super sharp, snappy session focusing on that high intensity.
Now, it's worth pointing out here, and then is a very important point, is that the lower
your weekly volume, the higher your percentages will be of the high intensity. The higher
in that bracket will be because, obviously, the less running you're doing, you still want
to get the quality, and that's going to take up a larger portion. If you take the polar
opposite of an elite runner is doing 100k to 150k per week, a lot of their volume is
going to end up being quite aerobic which leads me on to quite an important point around
junk mileage. I'm actually going to pick this up when I get home. I'm going to finish off
my run here. I'll see you there. [music]
Male Speaker: What a lovely run. Now, we've finished off with junk mileage. Now, this
is a term that is running around quite a lot by triathletes, cyclists, runners, alike.
I'm going to try to find it here quickly. A junk mile is a mile that is, I'd say, more
detrimental to improving your performance than not running at all. That's not to say
that an easy run is a junk mile. In fact, the total opposite. An easy run is there to
help your aerobic development and make you a more efficient runner.
If you are running too fast, that could then have a knock-on effect to those quality sessions
that are then going to also help to make you a better runner. In that case, I would say
running too fast and easy run is a junk mile. Just continually assess that. Now, given that
this may be slightly unusual or a new pace for some people as they're going to have to
slow down, I thought I'd finish off with a couple of really quick tips.
First of all, your form when you're running. It might feel really unusual now going to
this slower pace, in which case, try to focus on your foot contact and the noise of your
feet on the floor. You're trying to feel like it's quite light and quite quiet on the floor,
to help that you can actually think about your body position. You should try and stay
quite too. Actually, rather than bending from your hips, bending from the ankles, so you're
really helping out momentum and your center of gravity.
Then, finally, very quickly, actually just forget about your pace, maybe even leave your
watch at home. So many people are worried about the average pace all the time. Just
head out for a run, enjoy and get that space there. It's really good for your mental health
as well. I hope you have enjoyed today's video. If so, give us a thumbs up, give us a like
and don't forget to follow GTN on social media. [00:10:35] [END OF AUDIO]