Have a good weekend
Got this off the Running Times site. Unknowigly, I've been doing some of the workouts suggested, in my build-up to the Singapore marathon last year. I simply didn't have enough time to do the endurance runs. Oh well.
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Off-Track Speed Training
Why & How to Set Your Speed Work Free
Go down to your local high school, and you can see them, almost any evening of the week. Like moths around a streetlamp, they buzz around in repetitive circles, looping the track. They are drawn there, like moths to the light, by the promise of getting faster and lowering their race times.
Next to pure endurance distance runs, intervals on the track are probably the most popular workout engaged in by any runner who has progressed beyond the neophyte stage. When someone makes the transition from beginning jogger to committed, perhaps even competitive, runner, their immediate goals shift from becoming fit to becoming fast. And what more logical venue to achieve that than the track, where the world’s fastest humans, be they hurdlers or harriers, strut their stuff. After all, the fastest races are run on the track, so that’s the best place for speed work, right?
The fact of the matter is for the vast majority of runners, there are far better places to seek and gain speed. The track, while not the worst place for fast paced workouts, is best left to the lowest and highest sectors of the running population; relative beginners, who need the consistency and frequent feedback of a track to develop their nascent sense of pace, and the elites, honing themselves for top level competitions like the Olympic Trials or World Championships. But almost everyone else would be better served by gathering their track workouts and taking them on the road (or trail, or hill). In fact, many—perhaps most—of the top road racers in the world seldom, if ever, set foot on a track, and most attribute their success to that very fact.
Unspecific and Unforgiving
The first reason for this is specificity. "Why would I do workouts on the track when I run a marathon on the road?" asks Valeriu Tomescu, husband and coach of World Championships marathon silver medalist Constantina Dita-Tomescu. "When you race on the track obviously you need to do workouts there, but to prepare for a road race, it’s not necessary." Indeed, his wife does all her speed sessions off the track, not just because it more closely mirrors the conditions she’ll compete under, but to reduce the possibility of injury—which is reason number two to avoid the track. Dita-Tomescu has suffered from sciatic problems that crop up whenever she does extended trackwork, but remains injury free when she sticks to the roads or trails.
"Especially when you’re doing longer stuff, there’s a greater chance of injury, particularly to the inner leg from torque," says Kevin Hanson, coach of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. "It’s not the same motion you get on the roads—you’re constantly making left turns."
Alan Culpepper, 2004 Olympic Trials marathon winner and fourth at Boston last year, adds, "the track can be somewhat unforgiving on the body. Doing speed work off the track allows you to adapt to the stress load more gradually and prevent injury."
"I'm a big believer in working on a multitude of surfaces to work greater ranges of muscles," says Terrence Mahon, coach of his wife Jen Rhines and Deena Kastor, both 2004 Olympic marathoners, part of the Team USA California training group. "The greater your range of motion in training, the greater your resistance to injury."
What keeps many runners tethered to the track is the comfort factor—you know exactly how far you’ve gone at any moment and you’re never much more than 100 meters away from your starting point, or another runner if you’re running in a group (and indeed, for those training in areas of questionable safety, this may be the most legitimate reason to run on a track). But that very comfort, engendered by a springy, uniform surface, divided into evenly marked increments, is hardly the competitive environment you’ll find out on the roads or trails. "On the track, every quarter mile is identical," says Hanson. "You can't simulate anything you do in road race." That brings us back to the specificity issue, but just as important is the emphasis on effort versus time.
Tethered to the Clock
"An inevitable aspect of working out on the track is an overemphasis on time, and less on how you are actually feeling," says Culpepper. Off-track speedwork "develops the ability to focus on effort level and not as much on hitting certain split times."
Hanson agrees. "If you run on a track in 30 mph winds you still get a great workout, but your times look like you were really off," he says. "On the roads you measure your workouts the way they’re supposed to be measured, by effort, not the watch. If conditions are bad, you’re still running by a certain level of effort."
"You’re definitely trying not to be a metronome," says Mahon. "You want to learn to run a course in relation to the hard parts and easy parts, change up your stride on the uphill, open it up on the downhill. Some track runners lose that because they’re always running the same, even surface."
Some runners have definite loops they’ll use repeatedly for workouts, essentially using them as large, rolling, macadam-surfaced track substitutes. The exact distance may not be known and isn’t important in any case; comparisons are made not to an absolute figure but are judged relative to prior performances. "We have loops from 600 meters to almost 10K we’ll use as benchmarks throughout the season," says Mahon. Jack Daniels, coach of some of America’s best distance runners and current director of the Center for High Altitude Training in Flagstaff, AZ, says, "The idea is that if you're getting fitter, the workout will get easier. Let how hard it feels tell you how your training is progressing. If you’re covering a favorite loop quicker, it’s a good sign that you're getting fitter."
Venturing Off, and Up
The simplest off-track speed work is mid- or post-run strides, generally 10 to 12 x 100 meters or so, done two or three times a week. "They get your fast-twitch muscles working, and are a good transition into harder stuff later on," says Daniels.
When you’re ready to introduce something more substantial, hills and fartlek are two good early season choices.
"I feel you can use hills across the board to achieve a variety of training effects," says Mahon. "All-out sprints for 50 meters for power, two to three minutes up a longer, less steep hill for threshold development, even 20 to 30 minutes on an uphill course for tempo endurance. They’re especially good for people with injury problems. You can challenge your heart and legs more than you can on a flat surface. They’re also good for learning how much effort you can produce, how hard can you go up a hill depending on distance and grade."
"I like to do hill repeats as part of my introduction to speed and even throughout the season if I am preparing for a marathon or road race," says Culpepper. "I think hills are the best way to maximize the effort and simulate fast running due to the range of motion required and the power needed to run uphill. A good short hill workout is 12 to 20 x 45 to 60 seconds up a fairly steep grade."
***********************************************************************************
Off-Track Speed Training
Why & How to Set Your Speed Work Free
Go down to your local high school, and you can see them, almost any evening of the week. Like moths around a streetlamp, they buzz around in repetitive circles, looping the track. They are drawn there, like moths to the light, by the promise of getting faster and lowering their race times.
Next to pure endurance distance runs, intervals on the track are probably the most popular workout engaged in by any runner who has progressed beyond the neophyte stage. When someone makes the transition from beginning jogger to committed, perhaps even competitive, runner, their immediate goals shift from becoming fit to becoming fast. And what more logical venue to achieve that than the track, where the world’s fastest humans, be they hurdlers or harriers, strut their stuff. After all, the fastest races are run on the track, so that’s the best place for speed work, right?
The fact of the matter is for the vast majority of runners, there are far better places to seek and gain speed. The track, while not the worst place for fast paced workouts, is best left to the lowest and highest sectors of the running population; relative beginners, who need the consistency and frequent feedback of a track to develop their nascent sense of pace, and the elites, honing themselves for top level competitions like the Olympic Trials or World Championships. But almost everyone else would be better served by gathering their track workouts and taking them on the road (or trail, or hill). In fact, many—perhaps most—of the top road racers in the world seldom, if ever, set foot on a track, and most attribute their success to that very fact.
Unspecific and Unforgiving
The first reason for this is specificity. "Why would I do workouts on the track when I run a marathon on the road?" asks Valeriu Tomescu, husband and coach of World Championships marathon silver medalist Constantina Dita-Tomescu. "When you race on the track obviously you need to do workouts there, but to prepare for a road race, it’s not necessary." Indeed, his wife does all her speed sessions off the track, not just because it more closely mirrors the conditions she’ll compete under, but to reduce the possibility of injury—which is reason number two to avoid the track. Dita-Tomescu has suffered from sciatic problems that crop up whenever she does extended trackwork, but remains injury free when she sticks to the roads or trails.
"Especially when you’re doing longer stuff, there’s a greater chance of injury, particularly to the inner leg from torque," says Kevin Hanson, coach of the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project. "It’s not the same motion you get on the roads—you’re constantly making left turns."
Alan Culpepper, 2004 Olympic Trials marathon winner and fourth at Boston last year, adds, "the track can be somewhat unforgiving on the body. Doing speed work off the track allows you to adapt to the stress load more gradually and prevent injury."
"I'm a big believer in working on a multitude of surfaces to work greater ranges of muscles," says Terrence Mahon, coach of his wife Jen Rhines and Deena Kastor, both 2004 Olympic marathoners, part of the Team USA California training group. "The greater your range of motion in training, the greater your resistance to injury."
What keeps many runners tethered to the track is the comfort factor—you know exactly how far you’ve gone at any moment and you’re never much more than 100 meters away from your starting point, or another runner if you’re running in a group (and indeed, for those training in areas of questionable safety, this may be the most legitimate reason to run on a track). But that very comfort, engendered by a springy, uniform surface, divided into evenly marked increments, is hardly the competitive environment you’ll find out on the roads or trails. "On the track, every quarter mile is identical," says Hanson. "You can't simulate anything you do in road race." That brings us back to the specificity issue, but just as important is the emphasis on effort versus time.
Tethered to the Clock
"An inevitable aspect of working out on the track is an overemphasis on time, and less on how you are actually feeling," says Culpepper. Off-track speedwork "develops the ability to focus on effort level and not as much on hitting certain split times."
Hanson agrees. "If you run on a track in 30 mph winds you still get a great workout, but your times look like you were really off," he says. "On the roads you measure your workouts the way they’re supposed to be measured, by effort, not the watch. If conditions are bad, you’re still running by a certain level of effort."
"You’re definitely trying not to be a metronome," says Mahon. "You want to learn to run a course in relation to the hard parts and easy parts, change up your stride on the uphill, open it up on the downhill. Some track runners lose that because they’re always running the same, even surface."
Some runners have definite loops they’ll use repeatedly for workouts, essentially using them as large, rolling, macadam-surfaced track substitutes. The exact distance may not be known and isn’t important in any case; comparisons are made not to an absolute figure but are judged relative to prior performances. "We have loops from 600 meters to almost 10K we’ll use as benchmarks throughout the season," says Mahon. Jack Daniels, coach of some of America’s best distance runners and current director of the Center for High Altitude Training in Flagstaff, AZ, says, "The idea is that if you're getting fitter, the workout will get easier. Let how hard it feels tell you how your training is progressing. If you’re covering a favorite loop quicker, it’s a good sign that you're getting fitter."
Venturing Off, and Up
The simplest off-track speed work is mid- or post-run strides, generally 10 to 12 x 100 meters or so, done two or three times a week. "They get your fast-twitch muscles working, and are a good transition into harder stuff later on," says Daniels.
When you’re ready to introduce something more substantial, hills and fartlek are two good early season choices.
"I feel you can use hills across the board to achieve a variety of training effects," says Mahon. "All-out sprints for 50 meters for power, two to three minutes up a longer, less steep hill for threshold development, even 20 to 30 minutes on an uphill course for tempo endurance. They’re especially good for people with injury problems. You can challenge your heart and legs more than you can on a flat surface. They’re also good for learning how much effort you can produce, how hard can you go up a hill depending on distance and grade."
"I like to do hill repeats as part of my introduction to speed and even throughout the season if I am preparing for a marathon or road race," says Culpepper. "I think hills are the best way to maximize the effort and simulate fast running due to the range of motion required and the power needed to run uphill. A good short hill workout is 12 to 20 x 45 to 60 seconds up a fairly steep grade."
posted by pm19 at
10:29 am
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