Trap 7: Terrible Toos 1 - speed

As endurance athletes, we runners are meant to endure: endure effort, time, fatigue and the elements. Sure, various continuous, fartlek, interval and repetition based training sessions help us improve performance (and feel better), and in various ways for different length races or events. 

Running faster in and for training helps to improve. Yet, tipping the balance towards 'too fast', 'too much too fast' and 'too fast to soon' sets the scales toward the risks out-weighting the benefits: establishing bad training, motivational and technique habits, plateauing, an early peak, race-season frustration, poor results and injury.


The main challenge comes in the freedom that running faster often provides. It also makes us feel good. The early metabolic changes that allow us to run-faster (say, during intervals) from week-to-week outpace the adaptations our muscles, tendons and bones need to make for us to be able to cope with the increase load, stress and shock of running faster. It's not our metabolic machinery that often breaks down, it's the musculoskeletal support and movement systems.

How much, how fast, how often is very much an individual thing. If you're not certain, err on the side of caution.

Be wary the Speed Traps:

·      Too many hard days, with too few easy days and ‘unloading’ weeks.

Get out: Don’t confuse high volume ‘moderate’ training with true hard sessions. 
Prevention: Done properly - specific to your capacities, plan and races – you’ll need the easy days to recover, and lighter unloading weeks to adapt. Work your plan.

·      Too little general preparation or base training per macrocycle.

Get out: hold your nerve – patience, persistence and passion is power.

Prevention: A large proportion of your training time should be spent doing lower intensity training particularly through your general preparation (base and build) phases, even during the race season, and certainly when  recovering from races, ill-health or injury.

·      Too fast too soon during general preparation or base phase, and too much race-specific training too soon - particularly for novice, intermediate and those returning to running after a long lay-off.

Get out: Ensure you establish your base or foundation.

Prevention: Give your body time to adapt before increasing the volume of your more intense work.  There’s no need to rush. Learn from the previous macrocylce/year. Revise your log/diary/journal, and revisit your plan

·      Too much fast (intense) training, and too fast during easy sessions.

Get out: easy sessions are meant to be that, easy. Have the courage to execute them. If your hard/fast sessions are truly that you'll need the easy sessions.

Prevention: Patience and consistent regular training are keys to your ultimate success. Revisit your plan.

·      Executing (work) intervals and sets too fast and too short, and having too much rest between them.

Get out: There’s little to be gained from going much faster than your current 5km (run) time-trial or race speeds - particularly through your preparation phases as they approximate your VO2max, a level you’ll rarely perform above. 

Prevention: In a cyclic manner, aim to build the volume of these intensities from 2 to 8% of your total volume, with 1:1 to 1:0.25 work-rest intervals for, say, 3-5minutes and 30sec-2mins intervals respectively. Of course, these are dependent upon your capacity, experience, future race distance/s and strength & weaknesses. Leg speed ‘sets’ (eg. strides, accelerations) and ‘drills’ for neuromuscular efficiency can be used smartly all-year.

·      Training faster than one’s current level of fitness, in “hope” of some distant grandeur goal.

Get out: Don’t get ahead of yourself. Work in the here and now, with an eye to building to your future

Prevention: Revisit your previous race/year reviews and your plan. Use current and relevant metrics or results. Use current levels of fitness (eg. time-trial or ‘key session’ results) to build your fitness and performance (base).

Running Trap 6: Is More Better?

Through 2010-14 I have held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). Here are the Top Ten Run-training Traps as a summary. There’s also a cure or ‘get-out’, and a long-term prevention strategy for each.

Remember, what works for the pros and what are promoted as “the best”, “the most effective”, “the ideal”, “the latest” or “short-cuts ” are rarely what they are made out to be. They simply don’t work for most. Perhaps these are your traps?

Trap 6: ‘If some is good, more is better’:

With the accumulation of experience and training volume (and appropriate footwear), without an endurance background, you’ll improve for your first 2-3 years regardless of what you do. Unfortunately, there is no universal truth to ‘if some is good, more is better’. Most runners learn this the hard way, yet experience is often a great teacher. Just ask 2012 Hawaii Ironman World Champion Pete Jacobs, too. It took him a few years to figure out “for me, it’s best to train less than everyone else”.

Doing more – there is a time and place, and it changes. Sometimes, little and less is more.

Get out: Avoid aiming to simply do more each week or session. Indulge true hard training occasionally, and easy training more often. Respect all your commitments: time, energy and emotion, and balance ambition with (current) ability

Prevention: aim to find your individual “sweet-spot”. Not all training plans and programs, volumes, intensities and sessions work the same way for all people. They don’t even work the same way for you the next and the next and the next time around. Strategic and systematic variation and progression over time will allow you to find your own “sweet-spot”

Too much of the same type of running (or structured routine) too early. Running is an economical, efficient and effective way of getting fit. Running for health and fitness, is necessarily different to run-training for performance – although ‘good’ programs for each are based upon the same principles. The same type of running, on the same terrain (flat), on the same surface/s (even, hard), at the same speed/s, in the same patterns teach and train us to get better at that. Running hill repeats makes you better at that hill, not necessarily a better hill runner. Your body adapts to routine and habits (and your mind to myths, fallacies and beliefs) too, not just training

Get out: Learn and use other speeds, surfaces, terrains, hills, structures and even time of day., even if initially as warm-up and warm-down. They’ll add spice, variety and options to training. Think about some non weight-bearing (pool, bike, elliptical), and targeted or functional strength training too.

Prevention: See a run coach. Record your running. Ask & find out the differences between run mechanics, technique and form. They’re not the same things, and too many people and lay magazines and books use the terms interchangeably. Review, analyse and train to improve them. They’ll improve your “feel”: feel more comfortable running; feel of running; and feel how changes in your posture, stride, head position, arm-action, pace, and breathing can and need to be catered for in different run-situations. Use ‘Other Run’, ‘Medley’ and ‘Strength’ blocks or cycles in relevant phases of your multi-year and year plan(s) to guide your program and sessions.

For the record 'doing better is better', not necessarily 'doing more is better'.

Which are you better at? 

Running Traps 4

Through 2010-14 I have held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). Here are the Top Ten Run-training Traps as a summary. There’s also a cure or ‘get-out’, and a long-term prevention strategy for each.

Remember, what works for the pros and what are promoted as “the best”, “the most effective”, “the ideal”, “the latest” or “short-cuts ” are rarely what they are made out to be. They simply don’t work for most. Perhaps these are your traps?

Trap 4: Lack of Athletic Intelligence. 

Smarts comes in all shapes and sizes. 

Information and knowledge are easy to find now days. Just ask Coach Google or Doctor Google. 

Intelligence, though, requires reflection, analysis, evaluation and then application in context. Few aim to understand why they do what they do, how long they do it for, how it effects their body and mind (and habits) for the next day, and an accumulation of many days. 

Race-smarts is tactical intelligence. 

Street smarts is accumulated experience and know-how; yet, not always constructive or positive.  

Science smarts is often limited in statistics, context and application. 

The best smarts is figuring out what works best for you, and leaving the crowd, the squad, the trends, and the backslappers to do what they do:

•  Get out: Don’t be a dummy. Ask good questions. Ask many, trust few. Avoid trends. There are no short-cuts. Measure what you can - properly. Use it. Listen to your instinct, or ‘gut’. Use it too. Work them into your plan.

• Prevention: Become reflective and analytical. Educate yourself about yourself, about running and about training. Understand and apply the difference between training hard and hard training - for here is the heart of Smart Training and Athletic Intelligence.

    How do you use your athletic    intelligence to advantage?

Run Training Traps - 2

Through 2010-14 I have held discussions, meetings, race and program reviews, and constructed strategic performance plans with over 700 runners and coaches (and 350+ triathletes). Here are the Top Ten Run-training Traps as a summary. There’s also a cure or ‘get-out’, and a long-term prevention strategy for each.

Remember, what works for the pros and what are promoted as “the best”, “the most effective”, “the ideal”, “the latest” or “short-cuts ” are rarely what they are made out to be. They simply don’t work for most. Perhaps these are your trap?

Trap 2: No Training Plan. 

Training units and training sessions are easy. 

You may even have a weekly training schedule or routine (or 5, 8 or 10 day microcycle), essentially doing the same thing week in and week out.  A 3-4 week program may provide progressions in distance and intensity (speed). 

Few have a larger 16-24 week macrocycle plan, a yearly plan or a multi-year plan. It is these master plans that should provide guidance, structure and direction to your program, schedule and sessions. They ensure you get better over time.

•         Get out: ask, analyse and consider how any given session or schedule fits into the bigger picture. Flexibility and enjoyment included, each session should have a purpose and not be executed out of laziness, routine, habit or because someone else (said they) did it.

•         Prevention: Find a coach, or a mentor. Go beyond the big-squad approach. Construct a plan that suits you, your background, your lifestyle and ambitions. Keep an eye to the future, and the other on what needs emphasis each phase of your plan. 

Plan your work, then work your plan.

Better running - better training...

The secret to better running is, a secret you probably already knew...better choices.

A week or so ago, I distilled many choices into nine for you. After many requests, here are few ways to get better at the first, better training:

• better running
• better mechanics
• better technique
• better form
• better relaxation
• better individuality
• better planning
• better long term perspective, less short-cuts
• better lifestyle balance
• better periodistation
• better training phases, blocks & cycles
• better training load control
• better loading
• better maintenance
• better unloading
• better application of principles of training
• better goals & objectives
• better overall athletic development
• better endurance
• better speed & power
• better mobility
• better balance or stability
• better skill, better co-ordination
• better economy
• better progressions (better principles - see below)
• better volume (amount, mileage/kms)
• better intensity
• better focus
• better attendance at trianing
• better attention to, at and from training
• better speeds, paces
• better relaxation
• better complexity
• better structure
• better skill & drill progressions
• better combinations
• better variety
• better density
• better training frequency (& regularity)
• better work-rest ratios
• better training : recovery ratios
• better aerobic : anaerobic ratios
• better overload (better principles - see below)
• better progressions
• better loading over time, not all the time
• better variety (better principles - see below)
• better locations, better surfaces, better conditions
• better games, better fun
• better hills
• long hills, rolling hills, steep hills, up-hills, down-hills, trail hills, grass hills, mountains
• hill-drills, hill-technique
• running, hopping, bounding, jumping
• better warm-ups, better warm-downs
• better principles*
• better progressions, better overload, better variety - above
• better specificity
• better outcome specificity
• better relevance to outcomes: aim, goals, objectives
• better relevance to plan, program/s, sessions
• better relevance to training phases, sub-phases, blocks, cycles
• better physiological specificity
• better neuromuscular recruitment - movement specificity
• better VO2max
• better relative VO2max
• better speed or velocity at VO2max - vVO2max
• better duration of vVO2max
• better running economy
• better lactate or anaerobic threshold
• better fatigue resistance, better maintenance of work-output
• better speed, better 'speed-reserve'
• better respect for musculoskeletal loading
• better functional training outcomes
• better structural training outcomes
• better injury prevention
• better resilience
• better training regularity
• better confidence
• better individuality
• better respect to aim, goals and expectations
• better respect to individual tolerance to training loads and types
• better respect to differences in lifestyle and lifestyle demands
• lifestyle stress & training/racing stress is cumulative
• better respect to individual responsiveness to training
• better respect to individual recovery from training & racing
• better respect to likes & dislikes
• better respect to nutritional strategies and preferences
• better respect to environmental tolerance: heat, humidity, wind, cold, wet
• better respect to physical characteristics: height, weight, body composition, leg length, mechanics
• better respect to balance between solo, group and squad demands
• better cross-training
• better understanding
• better central-specificity : lungs, blood, heart, blood vessels
• better peripheral-specificity : neuro-muscular, muscles, movements, timing, loading
• better time efficiency
• better long-term effectiveness
• better weight-bearing CT
• better walking
• better shallow-water running
• better non-weight-bearing CT
• better cycling, better rowing/paddling, better elliptical trainer
• better deep-water running
• better strength training
• better general outcomes - transferability
• better 'specific' outcomes - neuromuscular function & running movement specificity
• better 'functionality'
• better stability, better control
• better mobility
• better recovery
• better planning
• better recovery strategies
• better sleep
• better progressions
• better sequencing
• better hydration & nutrition strategies
• better stretching
• better massage
• better therapies
• better testing
• better relevance, better timing
• better controls
• better standardisation
• better racing
• better time-trials, better lead-up races
• better interpretation & application of results
• better monitoring
• better records
• better diary, journal or log
• better software
• better communication
• better gear
• better footwear
• better injury prevention
• better protection from the elements - heat, cold, wind, sun
• better technology (?)

Running better is about many things. Most importantly, it is about making better choices - choices that work best for you.

Finding these is about being human - trying, trying again, and trying differently. Making errors makes us human. Making the same errors makes them mistakes - running & training the same way, yet expecting different results.

Trial & error is neither the only nor most effective way to learn. Read, yet don't believe everything. Ask many, yet trust few. Seek answers, yet understand your question(s). Learn principles to apply to you and your situation, don't blindly follow others, fads or trends.

Choose, then learn to train better and soon you'll be...

Efficiency, effectiveness, & economy...

'Stuff' goes into becoming a better runner. 

The same goes for becoming a competitive runner. 

Your success may be measured by podium, performance, prestige, participation, progress, or pride. 

Of course, race-day requires you to run speedily, safely and economically. If you're a triathlete you need to add your 'warm-up' swim and bike legs and be able to transition swiftly between them.

How well you do these depends upon your endurance training and racing history, and your genetic make-up: a physiological, biomechanical and mental passport. Good old-fashioned grit, determination, fortitude and will – along with some good fortune – help.

Remember...better running is about better choices. Is your training better to be efficient, effective or economical? 

Efficient training is about getting results in a short period of time. In some respects it’s about short cuts, quick fixes, 4-week solutions, 3 hot tips, 2 new trends, and one guru. It’s often about fads and following the crowd, but it is seldom about smarts. You want it now. 

It's your fast-food (take-out) method of becoming a better runner - fast to prepare, fast to consume, fast to empty your wallet, fast to give you a buzz...yet not very satisfying in the long run

Effective training is about results too. Yet results that are more productive and of a higher standard. It’s as much about process, and how well you train in the short and medium terms for bigger and better long-term results. It’s about being smart, and working on getting to what works best for you. It's about the power in persistence and patience.

It's your Sunday roast method to becoming a better runner - a recipe carefully handed down and shared, prepared and cooked with secret herbs and spices (not the KFC ones), eaten with appreciation...and, it leaves you satisfied and looking forward to next month's.

Economy is about movement and energy. In endurance performance terms it’s about using as little oxygen as possible at a given pace or speed. Having good economy is beneficial in three ways:

(i)       you can run faster    (or- swim, bike, paddle, row, skate)

(ii)      you can run longer   (or- swim, bike, paddle, row, skate)

(iii)     run (or other) at any absolute speed or intensity feel easier

Good economy depends on your genetic and mechanical passport, which differs between individuals - and for each leg of the triathlon. Training history, accumulated training volume, range of experiences, and recent pace-specific training have the biggest impact on economy. Many factors have been researched in relation to economy. Apart from minimising wasteful and compensatory movements, there is no one economical formula that fits all runners (or athletes) the same way.

It takes time for your body, mind and lifestyle to find their own ‘sweet-spot’ in terms of oxygen in and maintainable speed out.

Your sweet spot to economical running is as unique as those running, training or racing beside, around and against you.

Effective training shapes, styles and stylises your individual economy. 

Efficient training ignores it.

Which do you choose - the take-out, or roast ?