Training

 

Power Running Training Guide

Part 4:  Individual Workouts

 

 

 

Primary Workouts

 

The primary workouts are the most important workouts to include in your training program.  You will need to incorporate all of the primary workouts into your schedule, as all contribute to achieving your best performance.

 

Long Run:  The long run is a key workout and not just for the marathon.  While the long run is the single most important workout for training to complete the marathon distance it is also very important for training at other, shorter distances too.  The long run is important because research shows that increasing the duration of a workout provides a powerful stimulus for improvement.  For example, one unique study compared training one leg 2 hours per day x 3 days per week to training the opposite leg 1 hour per day x 5 days per week.  At the end of the study the 2 hour leg doubled the endurance performance of the 1 hour leg.  The point is that the long run is a key workout because increasing the duration of a workout is a powerful stimulant to improved performance.

 

I suggest building your long run to 2 - 2.5 hours if not training for a marathon.  For the marathon you need to build your long run to a peak of 22 - 26 miles, however long it takes you to run that distance.

 

Long runs need not be hard efforts; you can run them at a moderate effort with good results.  However, when training for longer distance races I suggest running your long runs at or near to the pace you plan to race at. 

 

Power Run:  The purpose of the Power Run is to both increase the runner's power output and to significantly increase resistance to fatigue at the faster paces.  The Power Run is conducted at a fast pace and run for 20 minutes - 1 hour (or about 3 miles - 10 miles).  It can be conducted in intervals or as a continuous run.  The Power Run is run at a moderate to hard effort (RPE 5-6).

 

Intervals / Sprints:  Intervals and sprints are exactly the same in Power Running as in traditional training.  Intervals and sprints, run in interval format, range from as short as 100 meters to a long as 1 mile.  I recommend incorporating a range of distances, from short sprints of 200 meters to intervals as long as 1 mile. 

 

Hills:  Hills have been called speed work in disguise.  While hills are not generally run at as fast of a pace as speed workouts, the additional muscle fibers required to run up hills is similar to to the increased muscle fiber activation that occurs during speed work.  The additional muscle fibers activated during uphill running is exactly what makes hill workouts so productive.  Hill running should be incorporated into your training on a regular basis if you live in a hilly area, and especially so if you compete on hilly courses.  You can run hills as part of your Power Run or as part of your Interval / Sprint day.

 

Secondary Workouts

 

Secondary workouts contribute to performance, but are not a replacement for the primary workouts.  Secondary workouts should be regularly included in the training program, but not to the point where they detract from or negatively affect your primary workouts.

 

Strength Training:  Research on strength training on endurance performance indicates that strength training can improve performance.  Additionally, a combination of both light weights / high reps and heavy weights / low reps training produces greater strength and endurance benefits than a traditional program of just heavy weights / low reps.  I also suggest that Olympic lifting may be even better for runners than traditional training as it tends to build strength and power while not causing as much hypertrophy (increased muscle size) as traditional bodybuilding exercise.  Research suggests that increasing the strength and power of muscles without increasing mass is more beneficial than training that increases muscle size along with strength and power. 

 

Cross Training:  Exercise Physiologists at Furman University had subjects run just 3 days per week and cross train an additional 2-3 days per week while training for a competitive marathon.  The results of this program were that 25 of 30 experienced marathoners set personal records or beat their most recent marathon performance by an average of 20 minutes.  Cross training is a way to increase fitness levels while simultaneously giving the running muscles a break from running, as the subjects in the Furman program demonstrate.  Exercises that work the muscles of the leg and glutes should be considered for cross training.  Cross training exercises include, but are not limited to, rowing, stepping, eliptical training, Nordic skiing, & cycling.

 

Plyometrics:  Finnish researcher Leena Paavolainen had well-trained runners replace some of their run training with explosive strength and endurance training (plyometric training).  The end result was improved 5k run performance for these runners.  This indicates plyometric training has a strong positive effect on performance, even when some amount of running is replaced by plyometric training.  Plyometric training is too complex to cover in this brief guide so I recommend getting a book on plyometric training or search the web for training articles on how to correctly perform various plyometric exercises and which ones to include in your training program.

 

Bounding:  One of the limiting factors in performance, especially at faster paces, is how fast your muscles can produce force.  The faster they can produce force, the faster you can run.  The way to train your muscles to contract faster is by performing exercises that tax your muscles ability to contract at their maximal rate.  Bounding is one way to do this.  Bounding is simply jumping while moving forward.  There are multiple ways of doing this, including over-striding so that you are in the air for a longer period of time with each stride, hopping forward using both legs, hopping up a flight of stairs, & multiple jumps over a series of hurdles or other obstacles.

 

Easy Run:  In the early days of Power Running I was not a fan of easy runs and did not include them in the Power Running training program.  In more recent years I have modified my stance on easy runs.  Easy runs do have a place in the Power Running program, just not a place anywhere as large as that suggested by traditional training.  Easy runs are likely to be most beneficial for level 1 and 2 runners as a way of increasing the total training load while minimizing the risk of the additional training resulting in overtraining. 

 

One research study in particular supports this view.  This study correlated performance for several thousand runners competing in a 10 mile race.  The data revealed that of those runners finishing in the fastest 1/3 of total finishers the ones who ran the most weekly mileage ran the fastest.  For the middle 1/3 of finishers, those who ran higher weekly mileage did not outperform those who ran more modest weekly mileages, but they didn't run any slower either.  For the slowest 1/3 of runners, those who ran modest weekly mileage outperformed those who ran higher or lower weekly mileages.  In short, this study suggests that the ultimate optimal training load is not the same for everyone, that faster runners benefit from running higher weekly mileages, while slower runners achieve their best performance at significantly lower weekly mileages.  Easy runs, as noted above, allow additional training loads while keeping to a minimum the risk of overtraining due to the increased load.

 

Easy runs should be run at an easy pace (RPE 2), for modest amounts of time.  The important thing about easy runs is to ensure they are run at an easy pace.  It is very easy to run them too fast and end up placing a too high training load on the muscles, hindering their recovery rate and risking injury.

 

Part 5 - 3 Day per week training program