Rundurance » Training Tips

The Worlds Fastest Workout – Tabata Training

rundurance — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:42:31 +0000

The concept of Tabata training is simple:

Sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds
Jog/walk for 10 seconds
Repeat these intervals 8 times

That’s it. 4-minutes and you’re done. And before you write this off as some lame fad, let’s talk about the science.

Tabata training was developed in Tokyo, Japan at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports. They compared the effects of high-intensity interval training (Tabata) to moderate-intensity aerobic workouts (long distance running) on VO2 max and anaerobic capacity. The study was 6 -weeks long, with each participant working out 5 days per week. They found that the moderate-intensity trainers produced a 10% increase in VO2 max, but they saw no anaerobic benefits. This was not at all surprising. What was surprising was that the Tabata trainers had a comparable 14% increase in VO2 max, and a 28% increase in anaerobic capacity.

After learning about Tabata, I decided to try it out for 4 weeks to test the real-world benefits. Although I understand the science of VO2 max, as a mere simpleton I measure improvement by increased speed, endurance, and pleasure.

The first workout was an eye opener. I went to the track planning to do 8 intervals, but alas I only completed 4. I was disappointed. To put this into perspective, I once ran/walked the final 21 miles of a 100-miler with no skin on 3 toes due to severe blistering. I couldn’t walk for 2 weeks after that, but I managed to finish because I loathe quitting. But Tabata is a whole different pain, and if you can’t run hard it has no benefit. I was discouraged. When I got home I read more, and learned that it’s encouraged to start with 3-4 intervals and build up to 8. I felt better.

The next day I tried again, this time aiming for 5 intervals (which I completed). It’s a fascinating workout for 2 reasons. First, you are running at a pace you never run at. This isn’t a fast run or a sprint, this is all out. You literally run each 20 second interval as hard as you can, as if it was the finals of the Olympic 100m sprint, and you’re filtering out the fact that you have to do it again in 10 seconds (and again, and again…). Second, it’s dreadfully painful, but over so fast. A normal weekday run for me is usually about 45-60 minutes, and a weekend run is often longer (sometimes much longer). It’s nice to get so much time back.

Eventually I did build up to 8 intervals, and spent several weeks running Tabata 4 times per week. But before I get to my personal results, I want to share one more observation… Tabata hurts. It’s a painful program, physically and mentally. Although it’s over very quickly, I dreaded those runs more than any training runs I’ve done. It’s not fun at all. It is, however, rewarding when it’s over.

The results

In the end, I had very positive results. Measuring speed, I ran a personal best 5K a week after finishing my Tabata regimen. For my endurance improvement, I had a tough time measuring since I hadn’t run a marathon or ultra recently, but I feel good on my long runs. In fact, I feel great. There’s no doubt I experienced improvement in my endurance. As for pleasure, I would say that my runs post-Tabata are more pleasurable because I feel so good. The Tabata workouts themselves were not pleasurable.

My recommendation

I think everyone should try Tabata for a month. You’ll get faster, and although you might be afraid of losing endurance I promise you that you won’t. Despite the positive results, I’ve chosen not to use Tabata as a long term program because it’s not fun, and whats the point of running if its not fun?

Anyone else tried Tabata? I’d love to hear your experiences.

The Secret To Getting The Most Out Of A Run – The Warmup

rundurance — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 23:31:51 +0000

I’m sure you’ve heard that you should warm-up before any strenuous exercise, they even teach that in elementary school gym class. But what they fail to do is explain why. And because of that, most of us ignore that old wise-tale that it’s important to warm up, and we just cut to the chase and start working out hard. After all, we’re runners! We don’t waste time doing anything but getting our workout in, we don’t have time for stretching and we certainly don’t have time for running slow, right?

Hold on, tough guy. What our 4th grade teacher failed to convince us of is that the warm-up is the secret ingredient to a great workout because it physically and mentally prepares us for the journey ahead.

Injury Prevention

Warm-ups prevent injuries in two ways. First of all, if you are nursing a previous injury, the warm-up acts as a litmus test. If you finish your warm-up and the ache is still there, you probably don’t need to push it doing a harder run. Of course, you have to know your own body and I’m not at all saying you can’t or shouldn’t run through pain, but if you just jump right in to the hard workout, you’ll have no way to gauge whether the pain is due to the strenuous activity, or whether it’s a nagging injury that needs rest and treatment.

The warm-up also does exactly what it says, it warms you up. Cold muscles do not absorb impact and shock as well as warm muscles do, nor do they stretch as well. Going into a hard spring, or turning your ankle on a rocky trail can be more easily absorbed when your muscles are warm. This is why warm-ups are particularly important in cold climates.

Improved Performance

When your at rest, so is your heart. Your muscles are relaxed, and your heart-rate is greatly reduced. As you begin a work-out, it takes some time for your heart to respond and to get sufficient oxygen-rich blood and nutrients to your oxygen-deficient muscles. This is why you might find yourself breathing heavy at the beginning of a run, but not so much after 5-15 minutes.

And the more you push it during that initial stage of the workout, the more your wearing down your muscles. There’s really no sense in wearing out your muscles at the beginning, before you’ve even ramped up into the highest gear. But if you take your time and warm-up, your heart and muscles are ready to go when you start the hard workout.

Mental Preparation

Let’s face it, if you are really pushing yourself then it’s hard to get out the door. If you know that your tempo run is going to hurt, or your intervals are going to have your lungs screaming in pain, then it can be mentally exhausting to get off the couch and strap on your shoes. It’s much easier to focus on one thing at a time. So as you get up t ogo run, think about the nice easy warm-up, and how important it is. Once you’re out there and your blood is flowing, it’s easy (exciting!) to start pushing it.

OK, Now What?

So now that I’ve convinced you about the criticality of a good warm-up, I know you’re chomping at the bit to go out there and start warming up. But hold on, champ. Let’s first discuss the details of a great warm-up.

How slow do I need to go?

That’s up to you. You should be taking it very easy, if you aren’t sure if you’re going too fast, then you probably are. Remember, we’re just trying to get blood flowing. For some newbies, that might be a brisk walk. For the marathoners out there, it’s probably about your marathon pace. If I was to try to give a one-size-fits-all answer, I’d say that you shouldn’t be breathing hard. At all. Anything you waste in the warmup will take away from the real workout, which is why you’re really out there.

How long should I warm-up?

Again, that depends. A fitness freak can go from 0 to 60 in just a few minutes. I personally only warmup for about 5 minutes. For a friend of mine that was new to running, he said he felt like crap for the first 20 minutes of every run, so I told him to slow down and warmup for 20 minutes. Generally speaking, that’s a good rule of thumb. Warm-up until you don’t feel like crap.

Overall, I’d recommend between 5 and 20 minutes to warm-up for the vast majority ofrunners.

What about you, do you consistently warm-up?

Marathon Fueling and Training

rundurance — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:50:07 +0000

This article was written by Jeff Gaudette. Jeff is a running coach at premiercoachingonline.com

As August begins, I’m going to start a series of articles on fueling for the marathon. It’s a pertinent topic given that over 400,000 people finished a marathon last year – so, I figure this series has to help at least a few people. This article is going to discuss the scientific background behind the use of energy (fuel) in the marathon and how you can prepare your body more effectively.

Let’s Jump in the Car

Close your eyes and imagine your body is a car. Corvette, Beatle, semi-truck, it doesn’t matter as long as it uses gas. Whichever car you’ve envisioned yourself to be, let’s assume that your gas tank is large enough to hold about 2 hours of fuel at cruising speed (Note: 2 hours is actually about the amount of fuel your body can hold while running at marathon effort). Now, if you were to run a marathon, how many miles would you get before you ran out of fuel? Here’s a hint – it’s your pace in minutes per mile.

Let’s say you plan on running the marathon at 6 minutes per mile. Given our example, you’ll hit the 20 mile mark just as you begin to run out fuel. The problem quickly becomes apparent – you’ve still got 6.2 miles to go. However, the solution seems simple doesn’t it? Stop for gas at 13 miles and you’ll be good to go for the rest of the race, right? Not so fast. Stopping for fuel isn’t going to help you set a new personal best. Furthermore, your body doesn’t always digest the carbohydrates you take in while running. As your body becomes increasingly stressed, it begins to shut down non-essential functions such as the digestive system. So, while you could be consuming enough energy gels to keep a small nation alive, they may not be getting processed by your body – it’s kind of like putting leaded fuel into your automobile.

Moreover, the problem of fuel during the marathon gets further complicated because, just like an actual car, the faster you drive the faster you burn through your fuel. If you’ve ever sped along the highway and compared your miles per gallon at 55 mph and 80 mph you’ll understand this concept. Burning fuel while running is very similar to what you would experience in a car. The faster you attempt to run, the faster your burn through your available fuel. Similarly, if you run slow enough, your body will use its available fat stores as an energy source instead of glycogen, which means you can chug along for quite a long time, but at a very slow pace.

Now you can easily see the conundrum we’re in when trying to train for a race like the marathon. Run fast and you’ll burn out of fuel quickly and bonk in the process. Attempt to refuel the tank when too stressed or without practicing and your body will reject energy. So, what is a runner to do?

Enough about Driving

The two best ways to address the problem of fuel during a marathon are: (1) to practice taking in small amounts of fuel while running fast and (2) to train your body to burn more fat and less glycogen at higher speeds. Fueling during the race will be covered in the third article in this series as this article will focus primarily on how to train your body to burn a greater percentage of fat while running at marathon pace.

If you want to set a new personal best, it’s not enough to run just long and slow miles. Sure, you’ll get used to the fatigued feeling in your legs and you’ll gain the mental confidence from cracking the 20 mile barrier. However, long and slow miles aren’t the best way to make you faster, which is why I don’t believe that slogging through multiple 20 or 22 milers is the best idea for marathoners with a goal of over 3:30. I believe it’s too much time spent running slow and thereby not teaching your body how to burn fat at marathon pace. Instead, you need to (1) practice running fast while tired and (2) teach your body to become more efficient at marathon pace.

Breaking up your long runs

One of the best ways to get in the volume similar to that of a 20 or 22 miler, yet also maintain a faster pace is to break up your long run into two moderately fast long runs. For example, instead of running 22 miles on a Saturday, try running 10 miles on Saturday at a steady pace and follow it up with a 16 miler on Sunday with surges throughout the run or with the last few miles at or near marathon pace. You’ll carry the fatigue of Saturday’s run into Sunday, which will simulate the latter stages of the marathon. However, you won’t be so fatigued that you can’t run fast at the end of the 16-miler.

In this plan, you’ve now run 26 miles for the weekend as opposed to 22 and you’ve completed a good 60% of the run at or near marathon pace, compared to almost none during the 20 miler. That’s 60% more time teaching your body to burn fat at marathon pace as opposed to just slow and easy running. Furthermore, running 22 miles at once will require a significant increase in recovery time, resulting in 4 to 5 days of nothing but slow, easy running. By breaking your run into 10 and 16 mile efforts, you’ll recover within 2 or 3 days, which means returning to more marathon paced work sooner than you otherwise would have been able to.

Practice Running Fast

Many beginning runners wonder why I assign them speed work during marathon training. If the race doesn’t require you to run faster than 8 minutes per mile, why would you need to run faster? Again, the more efficient your body becomes at burning fuel while running fast, the longer you can run marathon pace on race day. Workouts such as threshold intervals enable your body to maintain a marathon effort while running faster than marathon pace and thereby learning to burn fat more efficiently at race pace.

In addition, training elements such as strides and hill sprints help you improve your mechanics and form, which will make running faster feel easier. If running marathon pace becomes less of an effort, you’ll burn less carbohydrates for each mile run (remember more effort means your body utilizes a greater percentage of carbohydrate).

Sum it up already

The marathon is a unique and grueling race, but when you understand the physiological principles of the event you can start to eliminate some of the difficulties presented on race day. This article should help you better understand the basics behind marathon fueling and how to better incorporate faster paced workouts into your training schedule to prepare for the specific demands of the race. If you have any comments or questions, please don’t hesitate to include them in the comments section.

The Benefits of Injecting Surges Into Your Long Runs

rundurance — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:23:44 +0000

This article was written by Jeff Gaudette. Jeff is a running coach at premiercoachingonline.com

From elites to first time 5k runners, almost everyone knows it is important to get some sort of long run into their training plan every week or two. However, the long run has the potential to be more than just time on your feet with long, slow miles. While fast-finish long runs are quickly becoming a fundamental element in advanced training programs, an underutilized and rarely mentioned workout involves surges during the long run. Implementing planned surges during a long run serves a multitude of purposes. First, you can inject speed into a training plan during what would otherwise be a “slow” running day. Second, you can learn to run fast while fatigued, which develops race specific strength and skills. Finally, surges help increase the overall quality and pace of your long run, thus enabling you to finish faster.

Speed in Disguise

Any runner I currently coach knows I love to “disguise” speed into my training programs. I believe that it is essential to insert some sort of speed development into the training plan at least four or five days per week. Speed training helps improve running mechanics, increases efficiency, and buffers the body for race pace or faster efforts. However, speed development doesn’t have to occur all in one workout. You can spread speed training throughout the week in small doses, which enables you to maximize your time spent developing the more important physiological elements, such as threshold and aerobic strength, while also reducing the risk of injury associated with speed work.

By adding surges to a long run, you can go from 0 minutes spent working on speed, mechanics, and efficiency to 10 or even 15 minutes of “disguised” speed training per week. This slight increase in speed development is all you need to start seeing dramatic results in your mechanics and overall speed.

Specific Strength

One of the most difficult aspects of racing is realizing that as the race goes on, you have to keep working harder to maintain the same pace. Anyone who has ever raced at any distance knows that the first mile is significantly easier than the last mile. The increase in difficulty is caused by fatigue. Therefore, anything you can do in your training to improve your ability to run faster while tired is going to lead to better race results.

By injecting surges into your long run, you develop the specific physiological adaptations and mental skills necessary to increase your effort and pace as the race gets more difficult.

In addition, if you’re training for a marathon or your goal is to run a half marathon in the 2-hour range, surges late into a long run, especially when you’re low on fuel, help teach your body to burn fat more efficiently at race pace. Why is this important? Typically, the faster you attempt to run, the greater percentage of carbohydrates you burn (since carbohydrates are converted to energy quickly). Therefore, if you can increase the percentage of fat burned for energy while at race pace, you’ll have more carbohydrates to burn late in the race.

Quality

When doing surges during the middle of the run, you will typically notice two things:

The first surge is always the hardest and
Once you slow back down to your normal long run pace, you will find that your “easy” pace is now faster than before the surge.

The first surge is always the hardest because you have to wake your body up. As runners, we’ve been conditioned to think of long runs as slow and leisurely Sunday strolls. (Granted, running slow for your long runs is appropriate at times, especially after a hard week of workouts or following an increase in volume). Therefore, the body and mind aren’t ready for the hard interval you’re about to throw in. Luckily, as your body and mind get adjusted to the speed, you’ll start to feel invigorated by the change of pace. You will also notice the pace increase bleeds into the recovery portion of the workout and you will find yourself running a faster overall long run than you normally would without surges.

How to Incorporate Surges

Long run surges should begin about half way through the intended long run distance and end about ¾’s to 8/10’s of the way through the run. This means if you have a 10-mile long run that usually takes you 1 hour and 40 minutes to complete and you’re scheduled for 5 x 1 minute surges with 5 minutes rest, you should begin the surges at mile 5, which will result in the last surge occurring at around mile 8. If you have a schedule written by me, I will designate the starting point of the surges for you.

The length of the surge itself, the rest in-between the interval, and the starting point of the surge during the run are all variables that you can adjust to make the workout harder or easier. Typically, I start most runners out with 4 x 1 minute surges with 5 minutes normal pace (normal being your average long run pace) between each. For runners at a very high level, we may progress to 6 x 2min surges with 3-4 minutes rest. The pace of the surge should be anywhere from 5k pace to 8k pace. The exact pace will depend on the length of the surge and how much rest is given between hard efforts. Again, a schedule from me will have a goal pace included; typically, the longer the surge, the slower the pace. While this explanation of surges was a long article, it didn’t delve into detail regarding specific physiological adaptations such as myoglobin and mitochondria development because I wanted to keep the article simple and practical. If you would like to discuss surges in the context of advanced exercise physiology, I am always available via email or the comments section.

Enjoy the new training stimulus and if you try out the surges in your own training, post back here with your experiences.

Happy running!

10K Training For Intermediate Runners

rundurance — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:14:19 +0000

As I say in every one of my training programs, the first thing you need to do when you start your program is to specify your goals. As an intermediate 10K runner, I’ll assume your goal isn’t just to finish, it’s probably a specific time goal.

I want you to set three performance goals.

The first goal is your stretch goal. This is the race pace that you’ll be absolutely ecstatic about. Your second goal should be your most realistic goal. This is the goal you truly believe you can accomplish if you train hard (and if you follow my program, I guarantee you will achieve your desired race results). Your third goal is the one that you have to reach to be satisfied. Failing to reach this goal is a huge disappointment that should only happen if things go seriously wrong. Don’t be afraid to set this bare minimum goal! In fact, this is your most important goal, because it’s the one that will scare you into training hard when you’re not sure it’s worth it.

Let’s talk about the 10K training program

For an intermediate 10K program, I like an 8-week training cycle. You should already be capable of running 10 kilometers; this is really about getting faster. If you have to walk a little during a 6-mile run, that’s OK. Don’t run off to the beginner program, you can still handle this. For a peak 10K performance, I prefer to ramp up to 6+ miles very quickly, dip the miles around week 4, then amp it back up again to make sure you are peaking and healthy for the race. Without further adieu, let’s get started.

Intermediate 10K Training Program

Week	Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Sat	Sunday
Week 1	30 minute (Recovery)	45 minutes (Easy)	Rest	50 minutes (Easy)	X-train	Rest	60 minutes (Easy)
Week 2	30 minute (Recovery)	40 minutes (Intervals)	Rest	60 minutes (Easy)	X-train	Rest	60 minutes (Medium)
Week 3	30 minute (Recovery)	45 minutes (Easy)	Rest	40 minutes (Tempo)	X-train	Rest	75 minutes (Easy)
Week 4	30 minute (Recovery)	45 minutes (Easy)	Rest	60 minutes (Intervals)	X-train	Rest	75 minutes(Easy)
Week 5	30 minute (Recovery)	60 minutes (Medium)	Rest	60 minutes (Intervals)	X-train	Rest	Rest
Week 6	Rest	45 minutes (Medium)	Rest	35 minutes (Hard)	X-train	Rest	75 minutes (Easy)
Week 7	30 minute (Recovery)	45 minutes (Medium)	Rest	35 minutes (Hard)	X-train	Rest	40 minutes (Easy)
Week 8	Rest	40 minutes (Easy)	Rest	20 minutes (Easy)	Rest	Rest	Race Day!

Details about the 10K Training Plan

All runs should start with a short 3-5 minute warm-up and 3-5 minute cooldown. This is to get the blood flowing, nothing more. This can be a swift walk or a slow jog. It’s a critical part of the training, don’t think about skipping it!

Easy means easy. Not as easy as the warm-up, but heavy exertion. A simple test is the “talk test.” You should be able to carry on a conversation. If you are alone, you don’t need ot talk to yourself, just make sure you could talk if you wanted to.

Medium means it would be a little difficult to talk. You can talk, but there’s some heavy breating between sentences.

Hard means you can’t talk. You can grunt some words, but you shouldn’t be able to have a conversation. No matter your age or fitness level, you can run hard (relatively). This is important if you really want to reach your stretch goal. If you don’t want to reach your stretch goal, you shouldn’t have set it.

A tempo run should start easy for 5 minutes, run hard for 10+ minutes, then back to easy for 5 minutes. So a 20 minute tempo run is 5-10-5, a 60 minute tempo run is 5-50-5. Got it?

Recovery means take it as easy as you need to. You should feel better when you finish than when you started. If that means walking or a painfully slow jog, then do that. Remember, the goal of recovery is to set yourself up for a future run, don’t do anything that would degrade your next performance.

Intervals are a series of running fast for a short duration, then slow to recover. For all intervals, I want you to run 10 minutes Easy, then run 5 repetitions of 3 minutes Hard, 2 minutes recovery. The hard parts should be very hard. The purpose of interval training is train your body to recover, so make sure you recover well dring those 2 minutes of recovery.

X-training is something physical you like to do for fun. No, Wii Fit does not count. Biking, hiking, walking, yoga, stretching, and weight lifting are all good examples, but there are many more.

Preparing the night before your 10K race

You have done all the hard work to prepare, now relax. You don’t need to carbo load like you would a marathon, so don’t do it. You have 1800 calories worth of available carbohydrate cells with immediate energy stored away. You burn somewhere between 125-150 calories per mile. You will not come close to needing those carbohydrates. So eat a normal meal, drink lots of water, and get to bed early.

Have a beer or glass of wine if it helps ease your nerves, but just one!

After your race, make sure to come back and let me know how it goes. Just add a comment to this article.

For a more detailed training program, click below:

See Also:

5K Training For Beginner Runners

Winter Running Training Tips

rundurance — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:54:00 +0000

Winters may be cold and dark, but that doesn’t mean your training has to end (or even suffer). And that doesn’t just mean you buy a treadmill or hit the gym, there are plenty of ways to stay warm and keep running.

The road is covered in snow and ice!
Run on packed down snow. Fresh snow is often covering patches of ice, so you want to avoid that. But packed snow will allow for some descent traction.

But it’s too cold to breathe!
There is no evidence that cold air can hurt your lungs, though it might be a little uncomfortable on your esophagus. Try wearing a scarf and breathing through that. Breathing through your nose also helps to warm the air as it enters your lungs.

My feet are too cold!
Since you don’t want your shoes all stinky, most manufacturers sell very breathable shoes. That’s why your feet get so cold. Try wearing some thicker socks. SmartWool offers some very warm socks that are made for running.

OK, fine, but where should I run?
Run on the road if it’s plowed or there’s no recent snow. Run on the sidewalk if it’s clear. Make sure the lighting is descent, or wear a headlamp at night so you can see any black ice.

Sometimes there’s a blizzard outside and it’s not fun or safe to go out there to run. In that case, hit the treadmill or take a day off and drink a beer. But there’s no reason to miss the whole season because of a little snow.