Running Fundamentals for Beginners and Seasoned Runners
What can I do to be better runner? This may be a question you ask yourself often. You may have been running a while or are just starting but really don’t know if you are training the right way to get better and faster. You have more questions. “How fast should I be running?” “What pace should I train or race at?” “Why do I get very tired and have to walk before I am done with my training run?” Why can’t I get faster?” Why do my shins and knees hurt during my runs?” “How does my pace compare to other runners?”
Misinformation and Confusion
There is so much info out there saying different things about running and training. You are running but haven’t been given the proper guidance or have misinterpreted what you have read or heard from friends, other runners, internet, magazines etc. Many beginners and seasoned runners are making mistakes in their training and pacing. I was having this discussion with a member at the gym recently. He just got off the treadmill and looked very tired. We were talking while getting some water. He said he has been running for 20 years and participates in the popular races each year in the community including a 10K coming up in a few weeks. He says he can’t get faster and appears to be getting a bit slower year to year. I asked him about his training. He says he does all of his runs around 9:00 minute pace and generally races at 9:00 minute pace as well and can’t get any faster. He has been running this way for years. When I told him my comfortable training paces were around 1:00-2:00 minutes per mile slower compared to my 5K to half marathon racing paces he looked at me with a surprised look and said, “It makes no sense how you can run so slow in training but race so fast”. More on that later but it is important to know that it is not your fault that your training strategy may be not be ideal. It’s time to figure it out so you can stay healthy and improve your running performance long term. It starts now.
Training Hard All The Time. Don’t Do It!
You have a natural instinct to run so you just want to GO! To get better and get faster at running you may feel you have to run as fast as you can as much as you can and keep beating times from your previous training runs. You push hard and are forced to walk at times because you are breathing hard or the legs are burning. STOP! Each time you do this all-out effort, your body is reacting as if you are doing an exhausting race. It’s very draining and damaging to your body. It may be just a 1 mile run, 3 mile run, 6 mile run or more but you completely exhaust yourself for this time period and recovery takes a long time. This is not training, it is STRAINING.
Pushing through each run or run/walk like this and “racing” every time you run is an injury or an ache waiting to happen. These all out runs are a major shock to the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system. In time or immediately after, your body will start to hurt and you may place blame on your shoes, lack of stretching, poor eating, lack of water or whatever else you can think of. You wonder what you’re doing wrong.
The truth is you are working too hard! You keep tearing down and never allow the body and energy systems time to recover and come back stronger and faster. You have to remember that recovery is a major part of training. You can’t get faster and stronger without proper recovery. You have to be patient with your progress or you will get frustrated with the aches and pains and look for answers and many times you may just stop and say running hurts or is too hard. You blame “running”. Running is not to blame, your training approach is to blame. What to do?
Run Slower
Run slower? Todd, this doesn’t make sense. Seriously? Well, this is sound advice if you have been running one day or 20 years. You need to have a plan for each run. Seasoned runners need to mix in a lot of easy runs that feel slow combined with structured faster runs. Beginners need to mix in walking with running for several weeks and avoid faster running. Beginners should also not have any expectations of running continuously for X amount of miles for the first several weeks. You MUST allow your body to adapt to the impact of running. If you have not run for many years or just starting, the first 4 weeks are crucial and may play a part in whether or not you end up being an occasional runner or a lifetime healthy runner. You will spend more time walking than running and this should be by choice. Try to walk or run over 20-40 minutes and finish feeling like you could have done more. This is training and helps you slowly build your aerobic base. If you are crawling back to the house, you have done something wrong.
Build Your Aerobic Base
To get faster in any race of a 5K or longer, you need to build and keep building your aerobic base. Your base is responsible for or contributes to about 95% of your race times. The other 5% comes from speed work and race specific work. Here is an analogy. Think of a big cake as your aerobic base. Think of the icing as faster, harder work outs and runs that make you real tired. Icing is such a small part of the big cake. The cake still tastes good without the icing. You can still perform very well in races without speed work. However, when you combine both in just the right quantities, you get optimum taste and optimum race performance.
Aerobic base is miles, more miles and even more miles to build that aerobic engine. Every mile you put in gets stored for later benefits. You can continue to build your base over many years and keep improving. Early in your running journey or in the off season, much of your miles should be easy pace to build the base and teach your body to run efficiently and utilize fat and fatty acids as an energy source (more aerobic) rather than digging in and depleting your carb stores (more anaerobic) on a regular basis. If you are always running hard, you are digging into carb stores at a high rate and too soon which means more lactic acid and an inability to deal with it or deal with the increased oxygen demands of your muscles. This is the draining, tired feeling you get when you are out of breath and feel like you have no legs. It has nothing to do with your shoes, stretching, foam rolling etc. If you are gasping in your runs and have heavy legs regularly, you are teaching your body to run inefficiently which will put a halt to your long term progress very fast.
Having a big aerobic engine, base, cake or foundation or whatever you want to call it is the key to faster race times and is a fundamental part of smart training. Look at 2 runners with the same genetics……a 40 mile per week runner who has 2000 miles accumulated over a year compared to a 10 mile per week runner who has 500 miles accumulated over a year. The first runner will have much faster race times because the aerobic base is so much bigger and stronger leading to better race performances and the ability to run at a faster pace for longer and with comfort.
What Pace
Beginners should run easy and not be concerned with a specific time or pace. Run a pace that allows good form but does not push the pace. I know what you’re thinking. This isn’t as fun or you feel you should run faster or you won’t be ready for your first goal race in 8 weeks. Well, you should have thought about your goal race many weeks/months before and started training much earlier, right? Your goal is to allow adaptation to your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system. This takes weeks and months. You want to build up your cardiovascular system so it works aerobically and not always pushing you toward oxygen debt where you are breathing hard and muscles are hurting. This goes back to training vs. STRAINING. I have repeated this many times in this article and will again. Don’t rush the plan it or you will get in trouble.
If you are a more seasoned runner who has raced often without walking and with even pacing, then below are some general guidelines for pacing and smarter training work outs to do during a typical week. I would not go hard more than 1-2 times per week. If you were running 4-7 times per week you would do your easy training runs regularly and then choose 2 additional runs from the other options below. True beginners should be focus mainly on the easy training runs or run/walk over several weeks.
Common Training Runs
- Easy Training Runs
1:00 – 2:00 minutes per mile slower than your current 5K race pace (the pace you could run a 5k that day) where you can hear your breathing yet feel comfortable during the run and still have energy left at the end. You should be able to have a conversation with a running partner with ease on these runs. These mid-week miles are as important if not more important than the weekend long run. These typically are 20 – 60 minute runs. You can mix in 4-8 STRIDERS (think quick and pick up the pace for 10-20 seconds to reach 80-90% of your max speed striding out, maintaining good running form and controlled breathing) on 1-2 of these runs per week to break up monotony of the easy run. Easy training runs help in recovery and maintaining and building your aerobic base. If you feel tired from your last run, you have the flexibility to run these as slow as you need to.
- Long Run
1:30 – 2:30 minute per mile pace slower than current 5k race pace. I recommend doing these without carbs (especially in training) unless going past 90 minutes. Long runs are about time on your feet and teaching your body to utilize fats as an energy source and running more efficiently. Effort should feel easy and you can carry on a conversation with a partner. More advanced runners can mix in faster running in these long runs but under the guidance of a coach or structured plan. The long run should make up well under 50% of your weekly miles and ideally closer to 30% of your weekly miles.
- Tempo run
30 – 60 seconds slower than 5K race pace. Think effort if it is tough for you to figure out pace. It should be a challenge to carry on a conversation with a partner but you could. You should never be forced to walk. Earlier on in your race plan aim closer to 45-60 seconds slower than 5K race pace and progress closer to 30 seconds slower than 5K race pace as the goal race approaches. It is preferable to break these up in reps like 3 X 7 minutes or 4 X 5 or 2 x 15 minutes with 1-2 minutes of easy jogging between reps depending on length of rep. A 20 – 40 minute continuous run can be done as well with a gradual progression in pace. The longer the tempo run, the pace will be a bit slower. Increase pace gradually with the continuous tempo runs. These runs help you deal with lactic acid and build aerobic stamina. These are tough but not exhausting.
- Speed Intervals – less seasoned runners should just focus mainly on STRIDERS. Seasoned runners can do intervals of 200m – 800m at 5k pace effort down to 30 seconds per mile faster than 5K race pace for these spurts. Full recovery jog in between of generally 1-2 minutes. The shorter the rep, the shorter the recovery but get your breathe back. 10 X 200m, 8 X 400m, 6 X 600m, 5 X 800m are all solid work outs. Or 8-10 X 1 minute spurts if you want to focus on time. Speed intervals help build your running economy, leg speed and ability to build your peak oxygen uptake. These force you to dig a bit which helps you deal with demands of racing.
Note: All faster running work outs should always include 1-2 miles of easy warm up and 1-3 miles of cool down jogging.
Have A Plan
Let’s go back to my conversation at the beginning of the article. My gym friend who runs all his training runs at 9:00 minute pace and can only race a 10K at that same 9:00 minute pace. He is always digging and going deep into his carb stores early and often in training. Each run is hard, and he does not utilize as much fat as an energy source as he should and continues to run inefficiently. He does not vary his paces or intensity. From month to month or year to year he is always around that same old darn 9:00 minute pace and breathing fairly hard every time he runs.
How about me? I run my easy/comfortable runs and longer runs at closer to 8:30-9:00 minute pace. My breathing is controlled. These comfortable runs are about 80-90% of my miles per week depending on the time of year. I recover well and feel stronger during my 1 or 2 harder running days/work outs per week when I mix in some tempo and interval work at faster paces. I train mostly at 8:30-9:00 minute paces but can go run a 10K at sub 7:00 minute pace. My friend can’t believe it. Well, I am training smart with a plan. My friend is always straining……not so SMART.
Consistent, smarter training with a plan of attack always beats constant hard training 100% of the time. It is so crucial to have this mindset if you want to have a lifetime of healthy running, continued progress and ability to beat your race times year to year and have fun. This can only happen if you start your journey slowly. You must build your aerobic base, allow your body to adapt and recover and train and pace the right way – SMARTER!
