To Run Fast, Train Fast Part Deux

If you haven't already reviewed my previous blog on the 5 Step Process of Injuries, now would be a good time, as it relates specifically to this topic, muscles.
There's plenty of people with information that can go into depth on the physiological aspects of working out, I am not one of them, so I'll keep it simple here.

1. Athletes lose somewhere between 1-2% of muscle mass per year after the age of 30. In addition, bone density weakens, and we process less oxygen as we age.
2. We store, FULLY TAPERED, rested, and with proper nutrition, about 2200-2600 calories of stored Glycogen in our muscles.
3. Glycogen needs to be present to burn FAT. No Glycogen, no fat burning.
4. When we run out of Glycogen and therefore can't burn fat, our bodies then burn Protein.
5. Protein is muscle mass. IF YOU RUN OUT OF GLYCOGEN and continue to put metabolic demands on your body, you will eat your own muscles to continue the activity.

Marathon runners intuitively know this. Each mile consumes about 80-120 calories of stored glycogen. Do the math. With the other demands of running, most of us run out of glycogen at about the 20 mile mark. The body kicks over to protein. We hit "the wall". That's why we often comment the marathon is TWO races. The one to twenty, and the death zone 10k to get in! It's not uncommon for runners to notice days or weeks later that after rehydration, the've still LOST inches on their thighs and arms. You sacrificed muscle mass down the stretch to get across the finish line. It's ok, and it's a willing sacrifice we make to achieve our goal.

But RACING is not the real issue of this blog.
Let's discuss TRAINING, whether it be for a 10k, half, full or whatever.

Since MAXIMAL glycogen storage is around 2200-2600 calories with full rest, and all of us train and crosstrain constantly, there's little chance of achieving such storage amounts. Rather, our weekly long run often exceeds the Glycogen storage limits. This means that
MOST ATHLETES OVER 30 YEARS OF AGE WHO TRAIN USING MOST RUNNING BOOKS ARE SLOWLY LOSING MUSCLE MASS EVERY TIME THEY RUN LONG!

Eventually, you become very fit, very thin, and without muscle mass, very slow! Ergo the quote at beginning of the last blog, my runners may not be as fit, they'll just be at the finish line first!

So, what to do? I am not saying no long runs, but rather less of them and under more exacting conditions so as to preserve muscle mass. Also, no "pre-test" long runs close to your goal event. Rather, peak on your race day. OC's (Obsessive compulsives) are unable to do this, or any other delayed gratification behavior. No matter how well they run, it could have been better. So avoid their pace on long runs.

General "Train Faster" Rules:
1. Speed work is at least, if not more important than the long run. Speed CREATES muscle!!! Long runs EAT muscle.
2. If you run too long or too fast on long runs, you can't be recovered for proper speed training days later. You WILL get slower over time! Slow down on long runs, run less of them, and concentrate on speed workouts. Intervals on Tuesdays, Tempo on Thursdays, Long Runs on Saturdays is a good schedule for regular working folks.
3. Preserve Glycogen on long runs by eating, and by slowing down the pace to allow more fat to burn with glycogen. Remember, you run out of Glycogen, you start eating your own muscle.
4. Rather than always running longer, concentrate on 1 1/2 to 2 hour runs at progressively faster paces. MASTER the half marathon distance if you can do it under 2 hours.
5. Always eat within 1/2 hour after you finish your long run, and don't be shy. Bananas, P and J sandwiches on whole wheat, and chocolate milk, salads, chicken, even beef for amino acids, etc. Your body absorbs way more calories right after running than later in the day. Go figure, but it works! this will help you rebuild and recharge for the speed workouts.
6. Consider running a lot LESS miles every week, but at HIGHER INTENSITY. On race day, you will be able to run your current pace at a much lower heart rate, and as a result, save yourself for final pushes to hold race pace.
7.Weight training. I will specifically blog this after this series of blogs on speed training. But basically, in season, you lift lighter and less. Off season, increase loads and sets. You can MACRO taper weights in the off season to dramatically increase leg speed using this technique.
8. Long runs can be stretched at times to one in every 3 weeks. You can crosstrain with biking to fill in on other weeks. Biking OUT OF SADDLE ON INTERVAL TRAINING can also substitute for speed work.

Example:
In my late 40's, with a bad knee and big frame, I trained 16 weeks, averaged 32.5 miles a week, crosstrained weights and bike, and ran about 3:10 marathon speed, using the above techniques! In this schedule, I ran only two or three runs over 16 miles, and no long runs over 14 within the final 8 weeks.

Now go enjoy the day!   :>)

To run fast, train fast! A marathon perspective rejecting running dogma part 1

A recent chance encounter with a very gifted aging athlete running too many miles and not enough speed got me back up on the soapbox again. Man, some of you need REAL help out there!

I once read a quote from a coach who promoted 800's (1/2 mile repeats) as the doorway to developing lightening speed. He stated his runners might not be the fittest runners at the finish line, just that they would be there first.
Yet book after book ,by mostly the GGGS's (genetically gifted genetically sifted) extol high mileage, ever increasing mileage programs designed to test the stamina and commitment of even the most ardent of athletes. Time and again, people come up to me for my opinion, all excited, showing me detailed schedules with ever increasing miles, numerous long runs well over 15 miles, and weekly totals that only GGGS folks seem capable of executing. But what about the rest of us????  (YOU is almost surely US)
(My personal view is... any runs over 20 miles require me to get a medal, and smoke a cigar, or fogetttaboutit)

Check the running results of any marathon. If you run in the top 10 % of all runners, there's a good chance you may finish somewhere around and hour or less AFTER the top finishers! (if they're not Kenyan, they are writing a book)
And you're STILL in the top 10%!!! I finished a few under 3:10's and always "lost " my overall race by about 50 minutes to an hour or more. 2 minutes a mile AVERAGE slower!!! I have run tens and tens of Boston Qualifiers, and would "lose" by up to an hour and a half! About 3 minutes a mile slower, and yet STILL be in the top 10% of my AGE Group! This is a REAL TOUGH RACE!
http://www.marathonguide.com/results/browse.cfm?MIDD=57101002

In any other sport, it would seem ludicrous to follow the training regimens of top athletes. But not us runners. We somehow believe that if we follow the schedule of a winner, we will be a winner! Try Weiner instead!
Try the NBA, NFL, etc. training schedules and hold a job, handle 3 kids, a spouse, and the weekly "you never visit me" call from dear old mom! Then go mow the lawn.

Deet deet deee dah dah deet! This just in......Hold the presses!
Just FINISHING these damn things is quite an accomplishment!!!!

Here I go again on the running book rant..... It's SPEED training, not JUNK miles that will make you a better runner, all other things equal. Bang for your Buck, so to speak, is in speed, man!

The LITMUS TEST for running books:
Go ahead, get out your favorite running author ( XXX  or YYY) book. I got'em here on my shelf too....
 (I don't want to piss off the you know whos who have been writing all these damn books)
I'll wait......    ok  got it in front of you?  GREAT! Now go to the table of contents.... hmmm ammm ummm...  ok got it? Tell me if there's any info on:
1. look up the schedule on adjustments for weight to height......or ecto/endo/mesomorph types
2. look up the notes on adjusting speed and miles for age.......
3. look up the chapter for "I only have time for 30 miles a week"...
4. Look up the chapter for "I have a REAL job".
5. Look up the chapter for "how to adjust my schedule because my VO2 max is just above a snail's"

Don't bother sending me your answers. Kreskin Eddie already has a pretty good idea what your answer is. Zappo Dappo. Yet we each have a unique set of stresses, abilities, time etc. But not these here books written by the nearly starved, no man muscle, last guy you call for help in a fight. These dudes are very specialized!

If you are running 40, 50,70 or more miles a week, and you're just plain tired, worn out, beat up and crabby with the spouse and kids, stop kicking the dog and follow me to the Land of the Balanced, and I will show you how we can all run LESS miles with the same or better results!

next:  To Run Fast, Train Fast
Part Deux: Let's talk muscle
Part Tres: How to "MIX" the ingredients of a schedule
Part Quatro: The CORE.... 800's every other week
Part Cinco: Crosstraining substitutes and alternatives to make you FASTER yet!
Part Six: Your REASONABLE Goals

INJURIES: The FIVE STEP PROCESS

I meet a lot of you out there that have trouble training at peak, get tired, are endlessly injured, or just plain worn out. I've briefly covered how important periodization is, whereby you successively increase load over a 3 week period, then in 4th week cut back. (See my last article, as OC's are unable cut back to go faster). Then, do it again with a little bit more load.

We've all fought off injuries. Contrary to rationalization, they are predictable and easy to spot from afar. Tree/woods syndrome stops us from recognizing we are overtraining, however. So let's approach it from another viewpoint.

As you physically improve, there are 5 parts of your anatomy that respond. Unfortunately, they improve at different rates. Here goes, in the


ORDER OF IMPROVEMENT:

1. Aerobic Capacity  This improves fastest, especially beginners
2. Muscles  Again, beginners improve the fastest. ( Amazingly, journeymen, epsecially older athletes, often remove muscle unwittingly by overtraining with too long of runs or miles).
3. Bone Density  Stress fractures anyone??? It's not an anomally, but usually predictable.
4. Ligaments  knee issues, for example, or ankles.
5. Tendons Hello Achilles sufferers.....

 If you look at the above, 1 and 2 will improve rapidly.

So, if you like injuries, merely train to how you mentally feel, without periodization and without a schedule, view recovery days off as weakness, and add junk miles ad nauseum without speed, and VIOLA!!! pick your injury from doors 3,4, or 5! Then, astonished, remark to everyone "I don't know how it happened!".

Hardly a surprise if you understand the order of improvement.

Time and again, especially beginners and older runners, folks ramp up for a few weeks or even a few months, then it all comes crashing down in the endless syndrome of injury, or performance plateaus. Don't let this happen to you. Try and recognize it when it happens and change behavior. Injuries almost always do not come "out of the blue".

One of the reasons you need a schedule is to allow 2,3,4 and 5 catch up before moving to the next level, else you are increasing risk by moving onto the "injury zone".

Now go have a good workout!