Speedwork. Intervals. Lactate Threshold Runs.Tempo Runs. Cruise Miles.
From all my years training with different methods, it seems that these methods are used incorrectly to achieve results. They all morph into an effort that is a little too hard for the required result. Lets start with clarifying the terms.
Speedwork: To me these fall into max effort done at a distance of less than 200 meters. They help with running economy and efficency. To stay relaxed while running at 95- 98% effort will help develop actual muscular strength. Your muscles learn to recruit and fire what muscles they need to run fast. Untrained, your muscles simply fire all at once. This is necessary as a drill for runners, it also helps with running form.
Intervals: These are simply periods of rest time between hard efforts. Most runners say they are running intervals when they are doing multiple reps at a hard effort. Such as 8 X 400 or 3 X 1 mile. It is a vague term that leads to no particular results.
Lactate Threshold Runs: Now here is where science gets involved. More information is coming out about the muscles and body's use of lactate as an energy source. For now LT( Lactate Threshold) runs mean the fastest you can run before your muscles start to produce more lactic acid than they can clear. Think of sprinters as producing much, marathoners little.
The process of progressive loads of work help your muscles adapt and produce less lactate with continued effort. The feeling you get when you drop your pace 10 seconds a mile in a 5k and start to slow after that is the body's inability to clear the lactic acid produced by more workload. LT is closely related to V02 Max. These runs also help efficency with the chemical systems in your body. I will explore LT more completely later.
Tempo runs. Ah, the salvation of every long distance runner. Since LT cannot be determined accurately without lab tests, runners use the subjective term of tempo running to approximate the LT response. Tempo runs are a steady 20 mins of an effort you feel you could maintain for an hour race. This produces a training response without overloading your system and leading to overtraining. This is where runners can dial in paces they may need for longer races. I have used 3 miles on the track as a tempo run for years.
Cruise miles. These runs are supposed to be efforts longer than 2 minutes but around 3- 4 minutes. Most runners use miles at cruise pace to simulate race effort. Think of 3-5:30 min miles with 60-90 second rests versus 3 miles in 16:30 at once. This helps manage the effort instead of having a 3 mile time trial.
Hope this helps clarify the terms so you can use the correct method to acheive your goals.
Well said. You should add the description of what a long run is really intended to accomplish. Then, add in the tricky part of how often and during what part of a training/racing cycle do you do these various things and that's pretty much the deal. Can't really be covered in a 6 paragraph blog entry but at least we have definitions of the terms to work from. Pay attention Brad this could unlock your inner demons and make you unstoppable!
ReplyDeleteLong runs build mitochondria and capillary development helps oxygenate muscles more efficently. They also help utilize fat better. Dick Quax(2:11:13/2:10:47?) once experimented with doing 30 mile runs before his marathons. He found that 20 mile runs at a more intense pace or back to back long runs helped more. Brad, you have all the mental skills to do this. Are ultras about performance and ranking or a lifestyle? There are plenty of people doing 30 hour 100 milers for a lifestyle.
ReplyDeleteBoth. It is just my opinion that to last in the sport it has to be a lifestyle. However, I'm at a point now where I'm chasing performances within that context.
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