‘I believe our instincts hold great powers. But in allowing that sense to be useful, it must manoeuvre through your conscious mind. Here is where potential problems may exist. We have all grown up with many influences, including positive and negative ones. Some have become our beliefs in the form of tradition. These attitudes, such as “no pain, no gain” [ “If it hurts it must be doing me good.” ] are well ingrained in our brains. Others are more subtly deposited, the result of media hype and advertising propaganda. These life long recordings can easily cloud natural instinct, making intuitive training very difficult. In time, however, by learning more about your body and its needs, training and racing by intuition can be your most effective technique.’ Dr Philip Maffetone

This article aims at better understanding this first base training phase of  our ‘Farther and Faster’ running clinic by studying the scientific logic behind the workouts - An attempt to improve on some of the ‘experimenting’ we may have all done or been subjected to in the past.

Running is a joint function of many body parts, both physical and mental. To a lesser or greater degree all training is based on the body's and the mind's ability to adapt to stress in the form of exercise. The 'whole' body reacts to this stress by becoming stronger. This process is known as the ‘general adaptation syndrome’. If the stress is not vigorous enough  ( this is rarely the case ) little or no improvement is evident. However, take note, if the training is too severe or insufficient time is given between tough work outs and/or races, the body can break down instead of becoming  stronger.

Where do we start? How about: slow down to run faster! Running at a ‘snail’s pace’, say many elite athletes, will improve your health and stamina and even your speed.
I am sure that you can run much faster for a short distance than you can for forty five minutes or a 10k road race. Therefore, you do not really need to improve your speed. The problem is maintaining the higher speed for longer distance. The foundation for doing this is not speed work, but endurance training.  ‘By far, the most important aspect of training for endurance’ says Maffetone, ‘is developing the entire aerobic system. This includes good circulation, slow-twitch muscle fiber development and the ability to burn large amounts of fat for energy.’

The first step in producing a highly efficient aerobic system is building an aerobic base. During this phase of the clinic all your workouts are aerobic. Specifically this means at or below your maximum aerobic heart rate determined by the ‘180 Formula.’ [180 - age +/- 5/10 depending on health, fitness level at the time] Above this level there is a rapid change to more anaerobic function, a shift to burning more sugar and less fat for example. All workouts must be performed at this aerobic level. That includes TWC bike rides, runs at Elk Lake, our ‘Farther and Faster’ Clinics, and any other workouts where you may be influenced / ‘pressured’ by training buddies,  the hilly terrain, the weather, or not least of all, the ‘bully from within’! The easiest way to gauge your pace is to use a heart-rate monitor. The monitors are great for both training and racing. With, or without a monitor, check your pulse regularly.

Most of your endurance speed will come from aerobic training which is achieved by doing lots of low intensity running. Not convinced? O.K. Consider the often high percentage of time traditionally allocated to anaerobic training and the anaerobic benefits, and weigh them against the benefits in competition, you will get a better picture. ‘For example, in a one-hour event, only 2 percent of your energy is derived from the anaerobic system. In a two-hour event, only 1 percent of your energy is derived from anaerobic sources. Does it make sense to spend so many hours a week on anaerobic work when 99 percent of your race is aerobic?’ Certainly not in this phase of our training program.

High loads and stress, as in fast running, are not as important as many repetitions of the movement, as in correct  running technique, stride rate and breathing. Run at your normal long distance training speed, but with shorter, quicker stride rate. With practice you will soon find that it becomes natural, more comfortable, more efficient, and less chance of injuries from heavy landing due to over-striding. [See Running Technique: use the laws of physics’ to your advantage.] ‘While building your aerobic base, there are techniques which can develop more speed without becoming anaerobic. It’s called downhill or neurological workout. This activity, as the name implies, involves running downhill thus using gravity to your advantage. In this way you can increase your turnover while keeping your heart rate within your aerobic zone. In order to maintain your aerobic maximum heart rate, you will have to increase your effort, and this results in running ... at a much faster rate.’

‘Perhaps the most important part of your body, the one most responsive to training and most important for competition, is the nervous system. In many ways, when we talk about training, we’re referring to the neurological mechanisms.’ ‘One unique ability of the nervous system is its capacity to learn.’  ‘... any skill you learn by practice is the result of implanting memory into the nervous system. In the same way, training for endurance is no different. Each workout is a small part of a memory stored in the brain.’ If you train indiscriminately, including poor form, that is stored as a permanent record in your nervous system. If you overtrain, that too is registered. But if you train effectively, you maintain that memory too. The nervous system remembers everything it experiences, so be careful what you put into it. Sometimes a long process of “re-training” is necessary, especially in those who have abused their bodies through improper training.

‘Training the slower nerves to stimulate their specific aerobic fibers - which work at submaximal efforts - iis one key to building successful endurance. But this does not mean that you will always be “slow” - the biggest fear all athletes have. In time, and with successful training, the slow twitch aerobic muscles improve function and increase their speed, but still function as a slow-twitch fiber.’ You’re able to run / race faster with the same effort as measured by heart rate. Your aerobic pace gets faster.The training at this effort / pace also pushes back your anaerobic threshold, which equates with faster anaerobic speed.

When many athletes first start on this  program, the biggest concern is they don’t feel they are getting much of a workout because of the relatively slow pace. That is because, during this phase of training, the muscles are more developed than the aerobic metabolism. But in time, this situation changes. The different aspects of the body - neurological, muscular and metabolic - and their effect on training, progresses at a slightly different  rates. ‘By developing your aerobic metabolism you are eventually able to train at a faster rate with less effort. You may then have more physical difficulty because your muscular and neurological body has not kept pace with the progressing aerobic metabolism.’ Athletes may then complain that, despite a low training heart rate, they have worked very hard.

Ernst van Aaken sums it up: ‘The key is to adjust your endurance training by slowing down and running farther. By doing this, you will receive more benefits with the same overall effort.’ This is known as the ‘pure endurance method’ and is done at an even comfortable pace, without oxygen debt and lactic acid formation and build up. You can never do ‘too much’, say many authorities, training daily at a pace that guarantees a balance of oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide elimination. ‘Too much’ is when the intensity of the exercise is increased and continued to such an extent that the by-products of fatigue begin to accumulate, leading finally to a burned-out state, loss of enthusiasm, and a series of steadily-failing performances. ‘

Some forms of speedwork too early in the training cycle can be a form of destructive testing as opposed to constructive training. Continuous training at faster than race pace, even for partial fractions of the racing distance is uneconomical and all too often leads to depletion of reserves. I believe that training at the pace of optimal respiratory efficiency should form the basic training for all distances that we might race.

The endurance training method for middle and long distance runners can be expressed in a few simple rules:
· Run regularly [ 4 - 6 times a week ], run slowly, with creative walking breaks.
· Run for time, up to and often beyond that  you will require to finish a race.
· Run tempo running only at a fraction of your racing distance.
· Run no faster during tempo runs than you would in a race.
· Consider that breathing is just as, if not more important than eating, and that continuous breathlessness in training exhausts  you and destroys  your reserves.

The biologically most important function in running training for middle and long distance specialists is endurance - defined as a composite of maximal oxygen uptake capacity, reasonable body weight, and economical form.
‘Trying to drive the body fat down to 4% and running on the brink of over-training are not desirable goals.’

Although distance is a convenient way to monitor work accomplished, I always prefer to think in terms of minutes/hours. By measuring training in duration rather than distance will help prevent over-training and injury. It’s the number of steps that you take that counts, not the number of kilometers. Remember, stress is a function of time doing  something, so slow runners are often stressed more, even when completing lower mileage than their faster counterparts. That’s why a 20 kilometer run can be more stressful for a slower runner than a faster individual. This distance might take a slower runner two and a half hours to complete, while a faster runner might cover the same distance in an hour and quarter!  At the same  stride rate, it is not too difficult to see how much harder the slower runner works.  To avoid over-training and injury, a slower runner should run less total distance than the faster runner. Think duration, not distance.

The long run provides both physiological, and psychological benefits that can not always be measured in a lab. ‘Only in the long run do you encounter the muscle glycogen depletion that occurs in races. You gain certain adaptations with that form of training that are difficult to get any other way.’ In a glycogen-depletion state you have to make greater use of fat as an energy source. You have to experience this in training.

Always bear in mind that practice does not make perfect ... Practice makes  permanent!  Perfect practice makes perfect. Let us do our best to always reinforce biomechanically efficient running form ... Frequent body checks.

‘Speedwork’ , I use this term loosely, and hillwork will be evident at a later phase in the clinic. However, that is the future. Let’s stick with the here and now. The future will look after itself! Easy does it guys. Together we’ll make it happen. Continue to have fun while training. That way, endurance, speed, fitness, possibly a little weight control, a positive self-image, staying with the program and even ‘buns of steel’, are by-products!