I wrote a story about a year ago for Running Times' online edition about thinking about training beyond the usual three month cycles. It never saw the light of day, which is probably a good thing -- the writing wasn't very good. However, as an unfortunately insufficient way of showing thanks to the people who were kind enough to let me interview them, I'm posting it here. And hey, if you're gearing up for a new year of running, maybe you'll get a few ideas. Probably not. But maybe.
By Paul Coover
Mike Smith says he never plans less than a year in advance when he thinks about
one of his runners’ training plans. The famed coach at Kansas State University, who
also works with 2008 800 meter Olympian Christian Smith, is far from alone when it
comes to his long-term outlook. While many recreational runners get stuck thinking
two or three months ahead – to their next marathon, or to an upcoming track season
– they can take a lesson from the pros when setting training goals and look further
into the future.
And after the holiday season has passed, after new years resolutions have lost their
initial luster, we are left with this – the end of January. It is the time of year track
season begins to seem within reach. It is the time of year that marathoners begin
their steady buildup toward a spring marathon. It is the time of year we wait for
winter to turn a corner, the time the pace of runs begins to creep faster, and most
importantly, the time we begin to outline our goals for the remainder of the year of
training and racing.
Below are three perspectives on setting those goals for the competitive runner.
One approach focuses on the long distances, specifically the marathon and ultra-
marathon. The next applies to the true speed-endurance athlete looking for fast
times on the track. The final approach is aimed at the frequent road racer, the
weekend warrior who might, over the course of a year, attack distances ranging
from 5k to the half marathon.
Because result-oriented goals are so individual – a goal of running a personal
best in the 5k, for example, will be different for every athlete – process goals that
involve mapping out a systematic way of achieving those race goals can be a more
productive way of approaching goal-setting in the new year. Therefore, we focus
here on the ways established athletes and their coaches approach process-oriented
goals, and look for elements often missing when runners set goals for training.
The Endurance Athlete
The tip: Begin with the end in mind, and set a goal to build up mileage slowly – but
don’t forget the fast stuff.
Josh Cox never found his running groove until he began to log heavy miles. A
good but not great collegiate distance runner at Liberty University, Cox’s big
breakthrough came with his 2:13:55 performance at the Chicago Marathon at age 25
in 2000. But he says his real epiphany came even earlier.
A college professor essentially dared him to try running an ultra-marathon, which
he did, winning his first 50-mile race at only 23 years old. Before that race, he had
never even run a marathon. A skeptic before the race – he still thought of himself as
a cross country and track runner – Cox discovered a passion for the training he did
leading up to it.
“Getting super fit and running 30 miles is fun,” he says. And so it is for many
devotees of the increasingly popular ultra-marathon.
But Cox warns against setting goals of simply logging high mileage in preparation
for an ultra. He says that while there’s no avoiding the fact that racing such
extraordinary distances requires miles upon miles of work per week leading up to
the race, too many ultra runners neglect speed development.
Cox, in addition to training for ultras, also hopes to compete for a spot on the 2012
US Olympic team in next year’s Olympic Marathon Trials, which will require a
marathoner’s speed on top of his ultra-marathoner’s strength. But he says that
training for a fast marathon actually helps, rather than hurts, his preparation for
ultras. The key to being successful at both distances, Cox says, is working backwards
from a goal.
“One of the best things to do,” he says, “is begin with the end in mind.”
Cox plans marathons into his schedule as prep races for ultras, and says that for
recreational runners, this tactic can be good motivation to incorporate a hard effort
prior to the goal race. He then works backwards from there, often running a half
marathon prior to the marathon, which helps his speed development.
“Long, slow distance makes long, slow runners,” he says. For ultra-runners who
have built up a strong base of mileage but have hit a racing plateau, Cox’s advice is
to set a season goal of incorporating short workouts (he does workouts as extreme
as eight times 40 meters all-out in the midst of his 140 mile training weeks) to keep
legs fresh and fast. Then, he says, work backwards when from the main goal race
of the season, incorporating shorter, faster races as early season preparation and
longer races as you gain fitness. He also stresses the importance of actually planning
for a lengthy layoff after an ultra-marathon, rather than simply going by feel.
“The muscles are going to feel okay,” he says of the physical sensation a week or so
after a long race, “but your systems are going to be run down. You’re not going to
gain fitness by getting out the door and running 10 miles five days after an ultra.”
Joe Binder is another ultra-marathoner, albeit a less experienced one. Still, in his
first attempt at an ultra, he qualified for the US team that traveled to 100k World
Championships in Gibraltar.
He echoes Cox’s suggestions.
“What I’ve done is superimpose the work for the ultra on top of what one would do
to train for 5k to 10k distances,” he says.
Binder does similar track workouts to what he would do if he were training for
those races, then adds in long runs of up to 40 miles on the weekend. One of
the extra benefits of this type of training, he believes, is that he can organize his
workouts to fit with other local runners during the week, thereby using a training
group to elevate the intensity level of his runs. From a goal-setting perspective,
he uses the timing of his training partners’ goal races to determine the timing of
his. That way, he can be in peak training when his partners are, and tapering at
the same time as well, though he’s consistently logging more mileage on his easy
days and weekends throughout his buildup. Because many ultras are in spring, his
training cycle fits in well with a traditional track season. The extra boost he gets
from running with faster athletes arguably gives him a greater benefit than doing
more ultra-marathon specific workouts on his own, and gives him an edge in leg
speed when he races. He doesn’t plan on changing his approach any time soon. “It’s
worked so far,” he says.
The Speedster
The tip: Set a goal to incorporate more elements of total fitness into your training plan
year-round
Speaking in early January, months away from the summer European track season
at which he is aiming to run his best performances, David Torrence says, “I think I
could run a fast 1500 right now.” His words echo a sentiment often heard amongst
those who excel in the middle distances on the long, grueling European track circuit.
In short, in order to consistently be able to produce times near one’s personal best
over the course of an entire season, the thinking goes, an athlete can never stray too
far from any facet of his or her training, including speed work oftentimes reserved
for end-of-the-year sharpening.
When Torrence sets his training goals for the season, under the guidance of his
coach, John Cook, he does not imagine a traditional pyramid-style program, where
logging base mileage gives way to shorter, faster work as the year goes on. Instead,
he sets a goal of being at or near his competitive track shape throughout the year,
which he hopes will allow him to race often and perform consistently well. So while
Torrence hopes to ideally run his fastest in July, August, and even into September, he
is training his body now to handle the paces he will require of it in the summer.
He incorporates a base phase where he logs heavier mileage, but even within that
period of training he might hit the track to remind his body that the ultimate goal is
to run fast, not long.
Coach Mike Smith of Kansas State, famed for his development of middle-distance
runners, puts it this way: “We are always doing everything, all the time,” he
says, “just at varying levels of influence.”
This includes everything from lactic threshold workouts to anaerobic words and
even the plyometrics and drills that often grab observers’ attention when they see
Smith’s workouts. Smith says he doesn’t aim for any more than two peaks per year
when he’s setting goals for his athletes, and looks for ways for them to improve
beyond simply enhancing their aerobic capacity.
“If you just try to coach the lungs,” he says, “you’re only going to get so good.”
While the actual process of running is obviously the most critical element in
training, other elements – strength training, the aforementioned plyometrics and
drills – can be a critical part of becoming an all-around athlete, and not only a
distance runner. And that, says Smith, is his objective.
“We have spent a great deal of time trying to develop better athletes,” he says. “I
have seen the benefits of athleticism when it comes to competing on the world
stage.”
Coach Smith’s star pupil is Christian Smith, who represented the US in the 800
meters at the 2008 Olympics. Smith said that he wrote out goals for a 4-year stretch
of training between the ’08 and 2012 games, and that a large portion of his training
consists of the so-called “ancillary” work Smith espouses. While deciding what
the actual nature of what the ancillary work should look like is as complicated
as writing the distance running training itself, it might include anything from
doing drills in sand to strengthen lower legs to agility drills meant to increase
explosiveness and overall balance. Many coaches are increasingly willing and able to
help implement these components; Mike Smith often even looks to sprint and field
event coaches when developing this part of his training.
Christian Smith warns against leaning too much on the extra-curricular side of
training when setting goals, since most runners, unlike the pros, have only a limited
amount of time to work out, and will get the most benefit from simply running.
But if a runner finds some extra time that can be devoted to strength, agility, and
mobility training, Smith would advise trying to set a goal of incorporating it.
“It’s the small things on top of the running that can make the difference to get to
another level,” he says.
The Jack-Of-All-Trades
The tip: set a goal of focusing on aerobic development over the course of the next year
to be competitive at a variety of distances
Matt Downin made his living for many years racing myriad distances on the road,
track, and cross country course, and he says his success was due in large part to an
emphasis on aerobic fitness.
Downin pointed out that even at distances down to the mile, aerobic fitness is the
single best predictor of race results, so a runner who is in shape to run a fast half
marathon is probably not too far away from running a solid 5k. Downin employs
what he calls micro-cycles into his year-long planning and goal-setting, using six to
eight week blocks of training to work on various parts of fitness, with the underlying
focus on aerobic strength running throughout. That way, if a runner’s goals include
racing a road 10k in two months followed by a 5000 meter race on the track a
month or so after that, it’s possible to gear one cycle to the longer race, then switch
gears to prepare for the faster effort. In that way, each training cycle informs the one
prior to it and the one following it, allowing for a layered approach to training that
ensures none of the body’s energy systems is left untouched over the course of the
year.
One of the challenges of competing as a jack-of-all-trades is that there are no clear
seasons the way there are for, say, pure track runners. Downin, however, figures
that by outlining a season with goals based around micro-cycles, runners can avoid
the need to dramatically peak and then recover, which can only be done so many
times in a year before the athlete is too taxed to continue hard training. Instead,
the runner can move onto a new micro-cycle, which emphasizes a different energy
system than the one preceding it, allowing the body to remain relatively fresh.
“I am really of the mind that peaking is something that you don’t really need to do,”
Downin says. “If done correctly, you don’t need or want the big breaks, because you
didn’t go over the line, you didn’t completely burn yourself out, so you’re able to
take a couple days off [after a race] as a mental break and get right back into the
swing of things.”
Carl Rose is the coach of the Strawberry Canyon Track Club based in Berkeley,
California. On a weekly basis, he works with athletes ranging from sub-15:00 5k
runners to other athletes simply hoping to stay in shape years after their best
competitive years are behind them. With such a diverse group, Rose cannot assign
workouts aimed at one specific pace or even one goal race the way other coaches
can. Instead, he must continuously account for individual differences in the group.
Rose is an advocate of what he calls “mixed-speed tempos,” essentially fartlek or
interval efforts that call for alternating hard and easy segments covering a wide
spectrum of paces and durations of faster running. A sample workout might include
segments of fast running ranging from one minute to five minutes, with different
amounts of rests between hard efforts, and different goal speeds within the same
workout. Like Downin’s emphasis on overall aerobic strength, Rose likes this type
of training because runners training for different events can benefit from the same
workout. Furthermore, a single runner training for multiple events receives stimuli
that vary in intensity, time, and speed.
“The mixed speed workouts tend to help everybody, because it enhances the body’s
buffering capacity,” Rose says. In other words, a runner never fully rests and instead
learns to process lactic acid, recover, and continue the workout – a valuable skill at
any distance. Incorporating these types of workouts, then, should be a goal for the
runners who hope to be competitive in more than just one event.
One tenet upon which everyone interviewed agreed was that setting almost any
training goal is preferable to not having goals at all. No matter the races a runner
chooses to run, outlining a schedule that incorporates a few of these suggestions
could pay large dividends.
“When you don’t have a goal, it’s totally ambiguous,” Josh Cox says. “You’re out there
just spinning your wheels.”
