Training

Power Running Training Guide

Part 3:  The Single Most Important Thing In Running

This is the single most important thing for you to understand.  If you ignore or don't use anything else in this guide except this, you will still be ahead of the game.  What is the single most important thing in running?  You must find your optimal training load.

Training Load

Training places stress on the body, a stress known as training load.  One of the ways the body reacts to the stress of the load placed on it via training is by improving - it gets faster, stronger, and/or more fit.  The more of a load you place on the body, the more the body improves - up to a point.  Your body responds to training by getting more fit, but there is a maximum or optimal training load.  Placing a load on your body greater than your body can handle will not result in even greater fitness or a better performance.  Instead it will result in a sub-optimal performance and/or overtraining and/or injury.  Think of it this way.  If you have a headache, you may take 2 aspirins to make your headache to go away.  Even if you have a really bad headache, you still take only 2 aspirins.  Taking 3, 4, or more aspirins won't make your headache go away any faster and it may cause other physical problems.  Two aspirins is the optimal dosage and taking more than an optimal dosage doesn't help and may hurt.  Training is the same way.  The more you train the more you improve, but only up to a point.  Training more than your optimal amount won't produce better performance and may end up hurting you.

Figure 1:  Relationship between training load and performance

The reaction of your body to training load is like an upside down U, as seen in Figure 1.  As training load increases, performance increases also.  However, there is an upper limit to the rate at which you can adapt - you will only improve so fast.  Training more will not produce faster improvements or even more improvements, and will likely result in increasingly poorer performance.  An example of this is found in Prof. Tim Noakes book Lore of Running.  Prof. Noakes analyzed years of training data of elite runner Ron Hill and discovered that 100 mpw produced optimal performance for Ron.  When Ron ran mileages above 100mpw his racing performance was worse than when he ran 100mpw.  In other words, Ron's training data showed that his optimal training load was reached when he ran about 100 mpw.  Running more or less than this produced less than his best performance.  Similarly, you have an unique optimal training load, a unique training ceiling, that will produce your greatest rate of improvement and your best performance.  Training more or less than this optimal amount will result in less than your best performance.

How is training load measured?  Is it measured by mileage or by some other measure?  Most runners routinely talk as if mileage is the best way to measure training load.  However, the fact is that training load is not best measured by mileage, it is best measured by duration and intensity.

Training load = duration x intensity

Duration is the amount of time, in minutes, you spend exercising.  Intensity is the level of perceived effort put out during the workout and is measured with session RPE.  Multiply the duration in minutes of your training session by the session RPE number you give that workout for the total training load of that workout.  For example, a 60 minute workout, with a session RPE of 5 produces a training load of 300.

60 minute workout x RPE 5 = 300 training load

Measuring Weekly Training Load

Individual training load is correctly measured by duration x intensity, however, just knowing the training load for each workout is not enough.  We also need some way to quantify the overall training load because a too high training load leads to overtraining and a worse performance, not a better one.  That's why you need some way to quantify the total training load.  Total training load is calculated by summing the training load for each individual workout.  By adding up the training load of each workout conducted in a particular week, you will have your total training load for the week.  Table 1, drawn from an example in exercise physiologist Pete Pfitzinger's book Advanced Marathoning, illustrates the calculation of daily and weekly training loads.

Table 1: Calculating daily & weekly training load

Duration is measured in minutes of training.  Intensity is measured as the overall intensity of the workout, using the session RPE scale (0-10).  Total training load is calculated by adding up the individual training load of each workout.  In this way weekly training load is properly quantified using the 3 variables influencing fitness – duration, intensity, & frequency.

Integrating Training Load and Performance

The last piece of the puzzle is to track your performance in relation to training load.  By tracking your performance and training load you will be able to pinpoint the training load that results in your best performance. 

Over time, you will increase your training load, ensuring that you track both the total training load and your performance.  As your training load increases, you should see improvements in your performance.  Eventually, you will reach a training load where performance stagnates or even declines; you've passed the point of optimal training and are now training at too high a training load.  In this way, you will be able to identify the training load that is too low, too high, and just right for you.

It will likely take several years of training to build up to your ultimate optimal training load, to reach the your absolute ceiling of training load.  The training load that produces your best results early in your training career may prove to be too low in later years as your capabilities have increased.  However, you won't know this unless you are taking the time to track your training load and performance over time.

Summary

This, then, is the single most important thing in running.  Finding your optimal training load is the single most important thing you can do.  Finding the training program that produces your best results is job #1.  No matter how anyone else trains, how many miles per week elites run, or what the latest training article you just read said, each person is different and what is best for someone else may not be best for you.  You have to find what works best for you.  I provide some suggested training programs later in this guide, but they are just suggestions.  You must modify them to fit you.  Only then will you produce the best performance you are capable of.

Part 4:  Individual Workouts