Various Running Links and Quotes

Well it's definitely been a while since my last post. As per usual in my own life, I go through different seasons where my focal length (to borrow a technical metaphor from photography) narrows and I can only do so much.

Cue track and field since February... and, you know, all of Elaine's vestibular migraine ups and downs. More on that later, I supposed.

Anyway, because I'm a learner at heart, I've consistently got a backlog of links and quotes I've gathered. I want to be better about tracking that and storing it, but it can sometimes get away from me. The purpose of this post is just to track a few of the links, quotes, and resources I've come across in the last month or so when trying to learn some better coaching methods or thinking about what a summer cross country training program should look like.

Summer of Malmo

There seems to be a longer resource somewhere out there ("Malmo's Manifesto") that I can't access without paying for a subscription to Scribd. Malmo has a summer program of sorts for runners prepping for the fall. The gist:

Aimed at people with enough time in their summer (e.g., students on summer break) Run more Double 4+ days a week Meet up with others twice a week at the track Once for ~threshold (6.5 - 10 km total) Once for longer intervals, either 4-6x1200-2000, one lap jog 16-24x150-300m with 300m full recovery Slower people can just take a break more often and hop back in, because track

Also in the manifesto:

  1. Run twice a day, as many days as you can. Hopefully five, six or seven days a week.
  1. Run more. How much? I dunno. You figure it out, but find out for yourself.
  1. Run it faster.
  1. Love running and LOVE racing.
  1. Stay focused.
  1. Set goals and don't be afraid to fail.
  1. Listen to your body and don't be afraid to rest.
  1. Compete WITH your comrades in sweat - never AGAINST them.
  1. Smile a lot.

A user on Reddit about what should count as "tempo pace."

Threshold pace usually refers to the (upper) lactate threshold. As a rule of thumb, it is the pace you can hold for about one hour at race conditions, e.g., well rested and tapered, on a fast course. In training, you can hold that pace for 15-40 minutes at a rather hard effort. At 6:20/mile for your recent 1:23 half, threshold pace is a just a tiny little bit faster than that, but still closer to your HM race pace that to your 10k race pace.

Some people then use this backwards: they refer to the pace you can hold for a one hour race as threshold pace, and use that as an indication for where your lactate threshold is.

In reality, your average training loop likely will be slower than that HM race course where some nice flat roads have been blocked off for the runners, and that needs to be taken into account. When I was much younger and able to run such paces, my threshold runs actually ended up slightly slower than HM race pace, simply because of terrain and cumulative fatigue.

In any case, threshold runs are longer runs at approximately (upper) lactate threshold pace, perhaps with very short breaks. For example, Daniels might have you do 4x6 minutes at T-pace with 1 minute rest.

Tempo run is a poorly defined term. It will have different meanings for different people. It will depend very heavily on what your training goals are. Say, are you preparing for an 800m race, or for an ultra in the mountains? Some people simply use "tempo run" as a synonym for a threshold run. After all, both words begin with a T.

Finally, any such workouts are effective half marathon training, but quite demanding. Don't do too many of those, there is a relevant injury risk.

^I thought that was a pretty good descriptor, though perhaps I should do some more reading of the literature. The often frustrating thing about running and training is that there are elements of what we understand about training that are evidence-based, and then there is the "feel" of it. Sometimes you just gotta let it rip and see what happens.

I discovered a runner/coach named John Lydiard who seems to have been a pioneer from the 60s of the ways we think about training now for distance racing (e.g., building an aerobic base, then building speed and strength, then "sharpening").

See this Reddit comment here, this article on Runner's World("Training the Lydiard Way"), and the John Kellogg article on page 14 of this USATF publication ("Revving the Cardiovascular Engine").

Teaching hurdles is a new thing for me this year. The best resource by far that I found is ACE Method Coaching (run by Mike Caton)

From Outside Online, how to train for a 1600m race (for an older runner like me!)

Books or certifications I'm looking at to read or complete:

Tagged: running,

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