A Passion for Running

Comment by Pamalamadingdong

Tuesday October 17, 2006 @

I’ve heard this before as well.
I’m interested. Please enlighten me.

Comment by Andrew

Tuesday October 17, 2006 @

You want raise your anaerobic threshold (the point where you are producing lactate faster than you can clear it) as high as possible thereby allowing you to run below it at greater and greater velocities. Concurrently, you will create such running economy (fuel consumption efficiency)that you will be able to run greater and greater velocities for a longer period of time before the body switches to anaerobic exercise.

Therefore, two things cause you to go anaerobic: speed (effort in the case of hills) and time. The faster you run the shorter the time required before you go anaerobic. However, by training the body properly, you can achieve practical success (26.2 miles)at paces closer and closer to this threshold.

This is all related to effort a.k.a. heart rate as a % of maximum. There are rules of thumb out there that are probably not entirely accurate but will work for our discussion.

1. Generally 90% of maxHR is the threshold. Running at this heart rate or below is generally an aerobic activity. But how long you can withstand this pace is a function of your conditioning (fuel efficiency).

2. Generally 80% is thought to be “MP”. Over the course of a marathon, a well conditioned individual should be able to hold this pace for 26.2 miles. Maybe. The better conditioned you are, the closer to 90% you can go for the distance.

3. It is well known that the average person will sink at MP right around 20 miles. This is due to poor running economy. (Fuel burn).

When beginning a program, run at a low enough HR until you can do the required distance to produce the training effect (80+ miles). The training effect being a highly developed fuel efficiency at x pace. Then increase your HR to “MP” on your hard days only for increasing lengths of time as your program wears on.

Here’s a possible marathon breakdown: 20 miles at MP aerobically. 3 miles at threshold utilizing stored fuel in faster fibers. 3 miles partially anaerobic if this system is developed (this is why Lydiard has an anaerobic part of his program). Unfortunately for most of us, we can do the 20, and attempt the next 3 (the pace didn’t change by the way – just the body’s fuel consumption did)and then the last 3 chews us up into tiny pieces as we run completely out of fuel.

The cure for most of us is to run slower than 80% throughout the race thus allowing us to avoid the death march. But we need to change this! We need to train to run at 80% almost to the end. This takes 1) high mileage and 2) varying intensity (hard/easy/hard/easy) while still doing the mileage.

So balance is imperative – making sure that we optimize our speed to account for our mileage requirements given our current level of conditioning (which will change after 4 weeks). In other words, run slow enough to do the miles. Vary the daily distance, vary the daily intensity. Run faster on the shorter days, slower on the longer days. Over and over and over.

Utilizing an HR monitor will help get you started and will make it fun. It is important to run a target heart rate (effort level) as opposed to a pace target. I found that for me, I A) could not keep MP (80%) for very long at first and B) I had to keep a lid on the pace on easy days. My inclination was to run all runs at the same pace. This is wrong and will cause injury and will certainly delay the training effect.