When I put together a training plan for a runner, I ask myself the question “What is the purpose of this training session?” for each session I put on their program. It helps me to create a training plan which makes the best use of the time that particular person has to prepare for their goal race, whilst minimising their risk of injury.

But…runners are funny creatures. They can convince themselves that running faster, further or harder, is going to have them ahead of the pack, even if the evidence of their own body suggests they might just be overdoing it. I always impress on my runners that running more or running faster than their body needs, could actually inhibit their long term progression, and slow them down in their short term goal race as well. The same applies to all runners of course, not just the ones I coach!

Distance Running Training Plans

There are a few things about a distance running program that are important to note.

1. You should actually have a training plan. A plan that will tell you each day what you should be doing. If you just have some vague notion in your head that you should be doing this or that, then it’s not a training plan. It’s just a vague notion in your head.
2. Your training program should be tailored for you. Not much point in you following the same plan as someone who’s going to be running the race in half the time you will be, or who’s 30 years younger!
3. You should not exceed the mileage or the paces prescribed in your training plan. Doing more and running faster than prescribed, could actually slow you down.

Main Types of Workouts in a Distance Running Program

A distance running program is mainly made up of four workouts types, tempo runs, speed workouts (VO2 max), long runs, and easy recovery runs. Depending on your fitness level, your long run may be an easy run, or it may include some more intense periods of running either mid-run or for the last 20-25% of the run.

Here’s a run down on the different types of workouts that make up a distance running program, what they are used for, and why running them too hard could be detrimental to your training.

Tempo Runs

If done right, tempo runs improve your lactate threshold. They improve your endurance and ability to maintain a faster pace over longer races.

When you’re exercising, your body is breaking down glycogen to fuel the muscles. A by-product of this is lactic acid. Your body recycles this lactic acid into energy, and expels any waste products.

As you run faster, the amount of lactic acid produced increases, to a point at which your body is not able to utilise all the lactic acid for energy production. This point is your lactate threshold. Your lactate threshold pace is the fastest pace you can run without generating more lactic acid than your body can utilise and convert back to energy (usually about your half marathon pace). It usually corresponds to somewhere between your 10km pace and your half marathon pace. It’s about a 7- 8/10 on the rating of perceived exertion (RPE).

During a tempo run, you build up gradually so that you are running at a pace just below your body’s lactate threshold (about 6-7/10 on the RPE). You are training your body to improve its conversion of lactate back into energy. It should be challenging without being exhausting. You should be able to talk in short sentences, but you’re best off doing it on your own with no-one to talk to. Your tempo is unlikely to be the same as someone else’s.

Because a tempo run is aimed at getting your body better at clearing lactate, you have to let it practice doing that. If you’re going too fast, your body won’t be effectively clearing lactate, and so won’t be learning how to do it. If you let the body handle a moderate and consistent amount of lactate, it will learn what to do with it. But if you run too fast and flood the body with lactate, it can’t handle the excess, and doesn’t learn how to utilise it for energy.

So by running too hard, you don’t achieve the benefits the workout is designed to give you.

Speed Workouts (also known as VO2 Max workouts)

VO2 max is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body can utilise during exercise. Your VO2 max can be improved with training, allowing your body to utilise more oxygen and run faster.

Speed workouts also increase leg muscle strength and power. This means it takes you a smaller proportion of your overall energy available to you, to run at a certain speed.

Because you’re pushing pretty hard during these workouts, you’re at an increased risk of injury. Go just that little bit too fast during these workouts, or do that one repeat too many, and you could push yourself over the edge into injury.

That’s why it’s important not to do more than prescribed in these workouts, and also use your common sense. If you have, say, 8  x 800’s planned, but on rep number 6 your left hamstring’s pinging like there’s no tomorrow, you’d be mad to try to complete the session as planned. Calling it a day at number 6 would be the sensible thing to do, as would telling your coach. Or if you don’t have a coach, you’d need to adjust your next training session yourself as necessary.

Recovery Runs

It may come as no surprise that recovery runs help you to recovery from the harder workouts on your program. Your muscles are likely to feel sore after your harder sessions. This is due to the micro tearing of muscle fibres during the forceful contraction of your muscles when running at faster speeds. These muscles need nutrients and oxygen to repair, which is delivered to them via the blood. Given a chance, your body will heal itself, but it does require sufficient rest between hard workouts.

Recovery runs (easy runs/easy paced long runs) increase blood flow to these muscles, delivering oxygen and nutrients without putting too much force through the muscles. But run too fast on these days, and you’ll cause more micro tearing in the muscles which the recovery run should be helping to repair. This increases the amount of time you need to fully recover. Your body won’t perform as it should in your next tempo run or speed workout, as the muscles are still fatigued. In turn, that means you’re not getting the benefit from these workouts that you should.

If you keep your easy days easy (even if that means some walking during your run) your body will heal more quickly and will be much better prepared to take advantage of the next hard work out.

Know the Purpose of Your Workout

Before you put your running shoes on for your next workout, ask yourself, “What is the purpose of my run today?” It’ll help you keep on track and not be tempted to overdo it.

If you think you could do with a little extra help with your running, we’d love to be the ones to help you.  Find out more about online running coaching from less than $11 per week 

What is Carbohydrate Loading?

That’s massive. Even a 1% improvement could be the difference between you getting under that elusive mark you’ve set yourself.

What Does a 3% Improvement Look Like on the Road?

1% Improvement

• 3 hour marathon becomes 2:58:12
• 3:30 marathon becomes 3:27:54
• 4 hour marathon becomes 3:57:36
• 2 hour half marathon becomes 1:58:48
• 1 hour 50 half marathon becomes 1:48:54
• 90 min half marathon becomes 89:06

3% Improvement

• 3 hour marathon becomes 2:54:36
• 3:30 marathon becomes 3:23:42
• 4 hour marathon becomes 3:52:48
• 2 hour half marathon becomes 1:56:24
• 1 hr 50 half marathon becomes 1:46:42
• 90 min half marathon becomes 87:20

History of Carbohydrate Loading

• Developed in the late 1960’s
• Originally involved 3-4 days of heavy training and low carbohydrate eating (the depletion phase) followed by 3-4 days of rest combined with a high carbohydrate diet (the loading phase)
• 2002 research shows that maximum glycogen stores can be reached with 24 hours of inactivity combined with a high carbohydrate eating regime. There is no need for the depletion phase. 

Sometimes the Simplest Method is the Best

Researchers at the University of Western Australia carried out two studies, published in 2002, which showed the simplest and most effective way to “carb load” was to eat 10 grams of high glycaemic index carbohydrate, per kg of body weight in the 24 hour period before endurance exercise. This needs to be coupled with a 24 hour period of inactivity.

Prior to these studies, it was generally agreed that for muscles to achieve maximum glycogen storage, a bout of intense exercise needed to be undertaken to deplete muscle glycogen stores. Knowing that athletes were unlikely to want to complete 3 mins of intense exercise the day before a race, the researchers tested whether the same effect could be achieved without the intense exercise bout. And lucky for us, it can.

Protocol

1. In the 24 hour period leading into a race, do no exercise. In reality, this may be difficult, but you should do as little exercise as possible. That means don’t run round after the kids, don’t do the shopping, don’t clean the house. Put your feet up and catch up on a good book or movie.
2. For every 1 kg of body weight, consume 10 grams of high glycaemic index carbohydrate. This means you’ll need to stay away from higher fibre foods such as wholegrain bread, and steer away from fatty foods as well. If you’re eating dairy foods, use low fat (which is something I don’t usually advocate just for the record). If you want to eat bread, stick to white bread. Take in sugary drinks – fruit juice without the pulp, or dare I say it, cordial. Honey, jam, low-fat fruit yoghurt. No meat.

You may find you’re carrying a kilo or two into the race. This is the extra glycogen your muscles are holding, which will be used up as the race progresses, so it’s nothing to be concerned about.

References

Eur J Appl Physiol. 2002 Jul;87(3):290-5. Epub 2002 May 28.
Carbohydrate loading in human muscle: an improved 1 day protocol.
Bussau VA, Farichild TJ, Rao A, Steele P, Fournier PA

Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Jun;34(6):980-6.
Rapid carbohydrate loading after a short bout of near maximal-intensity exercise.
Fairchild TJ, Fletcher S, Steele P, Goodman C, Dawson B, Fournier PA

Nearly everyone who’s ever thrown on a pair of running shoes will have an opinion on running technique.  Some opinions are better informed that others!

Talk about running technique will centre mainly around:

• what part of your foot hits the ground
• where your foot lands in relation to your hips
• body lean
• arm carriage
• head position
• stride rate and stride length – the 2 factors that make up your actual speed

Unfortunately, too often attention is focused on just one or two of these factors, and many runners get the idea that getting these “right” will somehow solve all their problems and have them running incredibly fast in just one or two sessions.

But of course, you know better than that!

Let’s take a closer look at some of these aspects of running technique.

Footstrike – where and how your foot lands

The faster we run, the more likely it is that we will land towards the front of our foot, on the midfoot or forefoot, rather than the heel. This is because the body is naturally finding the most efficient way of moving as quickly as possible. To move quickly, you need to be able to get your foot off the ground very quickly in readiness for the next landing.

Some studies show that up to a third of the best distance runners in the world, have a midfoot landing point. (1) Curiously, some “analysts” have drawn a rather long bow, and deduced that if elite runners land on their midfoot to forefoot, then we all should run in this way. This however is disregarding a couple of crucial points:

1. Elite runners run a lot faster than most of us
2. Elite runners are far closer to being biomechanically perfect than either you or I. They naturally land more towards the front of their foot because they can. Their biomechanics, that is the way they are put together, allow for this to happen naturally, without thinking about it. It’s part of what makes them capable of being an elite runner.

Can you see where this is going?

Most of us are not elite runners, or even sub-elite runners. So is it appropriate to be striving to emulate their foot strike?

A study which examined the metabolic cost of walking and running at various speeds, showed that walking with a heel strike reduced the metabolic cost of walking by 53%. (2). That is, roughly put in layman’s terms, it takes 53% less effort to walk by landing on your heel first, than if you were to land on mid or forefoot. Which says a lot about why slower runners almost exclusively land on their heel. We are conserving energy!

But what about running?

Research conducted at the University of Massachusetts (3), used computer simulation to show that heel striking was about 6% more efficient than mid or forefoot striking at 7:36/mile pace (approx. 4:45 mins per km). Another study suggests that the cross over point, where there is no difference in running efficiency between heel and midfoot strike, is at 6:25 per mile pace (approx. 4 mins/km) (4)

So if you’re running at anything between 4 mins/km and walking pace (a fast walking pace would be about 8 min/km), you’re likely to be running more efficiently if you’re landing on your heel.

Footwear and Barefoot Running

Your body will find its most natural, efficient way to land, causing the least amount of shock to your body. For many people running barefoot or in minimalist shoes, this efficient landing point will be on the mid to forefoot. Note, however that one study showed 35% of people who’d transitioned to minimalist shoes still continued to strike the ground with their heels. (5)

Some people who’ve suffered from knee problems have found that barefoot running, or running in minimalist shoes has really helped their knee issues (and some haven’t), but there is also a lot more stress placed on your Achilles tendon and calf muscles with barefoot running. Some research evaluating injury rates associated with different contact points in runners has shown no difference in the incidence of running-related injuries between rear foot and forefoot strikers, whilst other research has shown heel strikers to get more injuries, and yes, you guessed it, some has shown mid-fore foot strikers have more injuries. Which shows what is good for some people, is not so great for others!

Overstriding

One of the problems with landing on your heel has to do with overstriding. If you are taking great big long strides and landing on your heel with your foot way out in front of you, that’s when you’re likely to get knee issues. The problem is not so much with landing on your heel, it’s landing on your heel when you land with your foot a long way in front of your body. This causes a breaking effect. Ideally, you’ll be landing with your foot slightly in front of your centre of gravity no matter what part of your foot you’re landing on Your centre of gravity is most likely to be your hips, unless you run with a massive forward lean (enough for you to be able to touch the ground with your hand!).

Overstriding seems to be a common issue with people who are under trained, and are trying to run at a faster pace than they are comfortable with. In my experience, as runners get fitter, their over striding starts to take care of itself.

Speed = Stride Length X Stride Rate

Another aspect that has received a lot of attention in recent times is stride rate, or cadence. That is, how fast you turn your legs over. There is no “best” or “correct” stride rate, though some people may have you believe that 180 strides per minute is the magic number.

At the 1984 Olympics,  running coach Jack Daniels studied the stride rates of 46 distance runners. He concluded that only one took less than 180 strides per minute. At the same time as reporting his results, he also noted that in his career as a college running coach, he’d never had a beginner runner with a stride rate of over 180 strides per minute.

Over the years, Daniels has been misquoted, and many coaches, recreational runners and some medical professionals got to thinking that 180 strides per minute was the magic number. Daniels, however, had reported stride rates of at least 180 strides per minute in elites, not exactly 180 strides per minute. Other studies have clearly shown world class athletes running at cadences well above 180 strides per minute. Haile Gebrsalassie was recorded running 197 strides per minute in the 2008 Berlin Marathon, on his way to a world record, and Abebe Bikila used a 217 cadence to run 2:12:13, in Tokyo in 1964 and become the first man to run a 2:12 marathon.

Stride length has received less attention. Theoretically, increasing your stride length will help you run faster (because speed = stride length X stride rate). I’ve heard coaches trying to get runners, particularly kids, to purposefully lengthen their stride.  However this can upset the natural gait, in particular causing an overstride –>heel landing –> braking effect! This defeats the whole purpose.

If it ain’t broke don’t fix it

If you’ve been running for a while and haven’t suffered from an undue number of injuries that can’t be put down to something silly like increasing your training by 50% in the space of a week, chances are that your running technique is in synch with your biomechanics, and everything is sweet.

An indication that you may not be running with ‘good’ technique is a high injury rate.   Injuries can indicate a lack of strength and/or mobility in particular parts of our body. By addressing these weaknesses you will indirectly change your technique by lowering the load placed on that aspect of your body, and also improving your efficiency, that is, the amount of energy used. For example, if you had a weakness in the muscles that keep your hips stable, your hips will move up and down excessively during each stride rather than directing energy towards moving forward.

Will I get faster if I improve my technique?

In my experience, what most recreational runners need to do to get faster, is run more. And I don’t mean by that go out and do crazy mileage and run yourself into the ground. I mean conduct your training in a well planned consistent manner, training hard when you should be training hard, and easy when you should be training easy. And training when you should be training, not making excuses. This strategy is far more likely to get you faster, than trying to change your technique to something that may or may not suit your body. One common thread we’ve found with our runners who we coach online, is their surprise at how effective slowing down their longer runs and upping the intensity of their interval training is, in improving their race times. And this applies to everyone, from 5km runners to marathoners.

Running the Natural Way

A not so sexy concept is “Running the Natural Way”.  What I mean by the natural way, is that if you trust your body to find its most efficient position gradually over time, sure enough it will. In this method, you don’t think about too much, which helps you stay relaxed, and gives the body its best chance to find it’s own way. You may think about one or 2 general aspects such as ‘keep my upper body relaxed’ or ‘keep my head still’ and let the other things such as foot landing, body position, and arm carriage take care of themselves. Pat Clohessy, coach of the Marathon great Rob de Castella, followed this  line of thinking way back in the 1970’s, feeling that his runners would just naturally become more efficient the more they ran. And more recently, Matt Fitzgerald in his book “Iron War” has examined research which suggests this to be the best way to develop good running technique. Remember our bodies are amazing structures- they can think better than you!

There’s No “One Size Fits All” Approach When It Comes To Running Technique

An important point to remember here is that our bodies are all different and that no one technique or ‘look’ fits all. Just think about the differences in our arm/torso/leg lengths, even if it’s just a millimetre or two, and think about what that’s going to do to how we look when we run, or how fast our cadence or stride length will be. It really boils down to how efficient your technique is, and from a scientific point of view, this is how much energy you use at a certain speed. The less energy you use at a certain speed, the more efficient you are. This is the only real way of determining whether you’ve got the ‘best’ technique, as all the other stuff discussed is just theory. Some of the worst looking runners have been the best, and how are we to know that tinkering with their style or technique would have made them better? We’ll never know.

Developing “Good” Technique

So from my personal experience of 40 years running, 15 years coaching and much discussion and reading, I tend to favour a combination of the ‘natural’ way with some small ‘conscious’ thoughts to work on.

• Body posture: keep your head still and feel like your torso is roughly straight, but in particular the hips are in line with your torso. You want to be sure your bum isn’t sagging into a “sitting down” position whilst you’re running. Hill running will help this, as long as you concentrate on keeping your bum up.
• Foot landing: just allow your foot to land where it feels comfortable and practice the body posture above. Think about this. You will have one of your feet hitting the ground two and a half to three times per second. You might be able to control what your foot is doing by actively thinking about it for a short period of time (and that’s debatable), but as you get more tired as your run progresses, the fatigue you’re feeling will inhibit your brain from being able to direct your foot where to land. If you want to change this aspect of your running, you are far more likely to be successful by gaining strength and mobility in the appropriate areas-most likely your hips.
• Shoulders/neck relaxed. Keeping your hands loose will help this. Imagine you are holding a potato crisp between your thumb and forefinger, and you don’t want to squash it. Similarly, you can think about keeping nice and relaxed through your lips and cheeks. Imagine your lips and cheeks look like a slo-mo video of a 100m sprinter. If you’re loose through lips, cheeks and hands, you’ll likely be relaxed through the neck and shoulders as well.
• Arm swing: should be flowing and relaxed. An interesting point here is your arms dictate how fast your legs can move, so keep them moving! If you’re concerned about your arms swinging across your body too much, you would do well to stretch your chest muscles, and strengthen the muscles between your shoulder blades, rather than actively think about what’s happening with your arms whilst you’re running.
• Stride length: Will improve as your legs get stronger with faster running and hills. Any tinkering may cause over striding, so don’t force it.
• Stride rate will also increase naturally with faster running, however you can consciously think about this one. If you have a device that measures stride rate, keep an eye on it during different types of running and see if you’re improving, but remember it’s your own number, not some magical number of someone else. Increasing your stride rate by 2-4% can help you “run light”, putting less impact force through your body and reducing the risk of injury. You can cue yourself to think about landing with your foot underneath your hips. It is highly unlikely this will actually happen, but it will help to get your stride rate a little quicker by stopping excessive over striding at the front of your stride. Use the cue for a few minutes at a time, frequently throughout a run. Don’t try to run like this the entire time you’re running. Firstly, you want to make changes to your stride gradually to avoid injury, and secondly, you’ll need to give your brain a break to avoid the fatigue associated with concentrating for too long on what your foot is doing.
• Undertake a regular strength, stability and mobility routine. This is something that is regularly ignored by runners, and is a super important part of training.

If you feel you’re ready to take your training to the next level, join the Hooked on Running online team, and get a program tailored to your specific needs, and expert coaching from people who care.

References

1. Hesegawa H, Yamauchi T, Kraemer W. Foot strike patterns of runners at the 15-km point during an elitelevel half marathon. J Strength Cond. 2007;21:888-893.
2. Cunningham C, Schilling N, Anders C et al. The influence of foot posture on the cost of transport in humans. J Experimental Biolo­gy. 2010;213:790-797.
3. Miller R, Russell E, Gruber A, et al. Foot-strike pattern selection to minimize muscle energy expenditure during running: a com­puter simulation study. Annual meeting of American Society of Biomechanics in State College, PA, 2009.
4. Ogueta-Alday A, Rodríguez-Marroyo JA, García-López J. Rearfoot Striking Runners Are More Economical than Midfoot Strikers. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2013 Aug 30.
5. Goss D, Lewek M, Yu B, et al. Accuracy of self-reported foot strike patterns and loading rates associated with traditional and minimalist running shoes. Human Movement Science Research Symposium, 2012, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.