Sleep and proper recovery is key. Its not always about how hard you train, how much mileage you run, what workouts you can do, its about how you're able to do those things and make fitness adaptations. Adaptations happen during recovery. Get the most out of the training you can do. If you can only do 40 miles a week, get the most out of it by taking recovery extremely seriously. On the other hand, if you are doing 90+ miles a week but not recovering, you'll get hurt, sick, or burnt out.
Hills. Long ones, short ones, hill repeats, hill sprints, hilly courses, etc. Every season in XC and track, my race times improved significantly after my first 2-3 hard hill-work sessions were in the books. I coach HS XC and track now and my teams are quite successful and, you bet, we do lots of hills.
Couple of simple things:
I used the following kind of armchair formulas when I helped coach people, both of which came from realizing how wrong I was in training years ago.
#1: In order of importance: Recovery - Intensity - Quality - Quantity = Better Training.
Quantity is obviously how much you're doing, or volume.
Quality is how you organize the quantity to be more beneficial.
Intensity is how hard you are doing the quality.
Recovery is doing all those little things right (eating, sleeping, supplementing, preventive exercises/therapy, etc), EVEN TAKING AN OCCASIONAL DAY OFF for complete rest. This is the most important part of your training as it is in recovery that physiological adaptations are dialing in so to speak.
#2: 1 in 3, 1 in 7, 1 in 10.
No more than 1 in 3 workouts should be moderate/hard. So a hard workout should be followed by two normal/easy/more relaxed workouts. Gives the body time to clear lactate, reassemble damaged tendon/muscle fibers (DOMS), etc.
Take at least one complete rest/recovery day from running every seven days during a racing season where you are doing really hard workouts and really hard races.
(Even if you cross-train on that day that's fine, just let your body recovery from the biomechanical stress of running.) Body just needs the break. But it's a good 'rest' day to catch up on yoga, some strength training, getting to the PT room for cold whirlpools, and so on.
Take at least one complete day off (or cross train on that day) every ten days during a non-race season, like in base building. You're not hammering workouts as hard in those first few weeks to couple of months as you build quantity/quality, so a day off every ten days works pretty well in helping full recovery.
This last little armchair formula just works. Nothing is better than just complete rest if you work it into training correctly. Gives your mind a break as well.
Hope you have success.
I follow the wizard's advice recovery easy walk back to 120 pulse when I run my intervals . Functions great.
Run on pure hate.
prefan wrote:
Hills. Long ones, short ones, hill repeats, hill sprints, hilly courses, etc. Every season in XC and track, my race times improved significantly after my first 2-3 hard hill-work sessions were in the books. I coach HS XC and track now and my teams are quite successful and, you bet, we do lots of hills.
Totally agree. I used to emphasise hills, and intervals on the track. Of course, I also preached for cross country:" you are only as good as your summer"
Meaning, that should be where you build your base. Mile, miles, miles.
1. Run more miles
2. Doubles
3. Short rest intervals
Great thread
My brother. An Olympic athlete and top 2 world ranked jumper said.
.when yiu turn up to training, train. Do your work,don't chat. You can chat when your session is over.
Danny Mackey: “Elite coaches’ training plans are 90% the same.” The fundamentals of running fast are well understood. Avoid gimmicks and shortcuts.
Frank Shorter: “Two quality sessions, a long run, and as much easy running as you can recover from. Repeat for years.” Consistency matters more than any single workout. Training must be sustainable over the long term.
Arthur Lydiard: “Train, don’t strain. Leave one rep in the tank.” The goal of training is adaptation, not exhaustion. Pushing to failure adds fatigue faster than fitness.
Jack Daniels: “Every run should have a purpose.” That purpose may be speed, endurance, recovery, or durability. Regardless it should always support your specific, long-term racing goals.
ArchimedesLever wrote:
Couple of simple things:
I used the following kind of armchair formulas when I helped coach people, both of which came from realizing how wrong I was in training years ago.
#1: In order of importance: Recovery - Intensity - Quality - Quantity = Better Training.
Quantity is obviously how much you're doing, or volume.
Quality is how you organize the quantity to be more beneficial.
Intensity is how hard you are doing the quality.
Recovery is doing all those little things right (eating, sleeping, supplementing, preventive exercises/therapy, etc), EVEN TAKING AN OCCASIONAL DAY OFF for complete rest. This is the most important part of your training as it is in recovery that physiological adaptations are dialing in so to speak.
#2: 1 in 3, 1 in 7, 1 in 10.
No more than 1 in 3 workouts should be moderate/hard. So a hard workout should be followed by two normal/easy/more relaxed workouts. Gives the body time to clear lactate, reassemble damaged tendon/muscle fibers (DOMS), etc.
Take at least one complete rest/recovery day from running every seven days during a racing season where you are doing really hard workouts and really hard races.
(Even if you cross-train on that day that's fine, just let your body recovery from the biomechanical stress of running.) Body just needs the break. But it's a good 'rest' day to catch up on yoga, some strength training, getting to the PT room for cold whirlpools, and so on.Take at least one complete day off (or cross train on that day) every ten days during a non-race season, like in base building. You're not hammering workouts as hard in those first few weeks to couple of months as you build quantity/quality, so a day off every ten days works pretty well in helping full recovery.
This last little armchair formula just works. Nothing is better than just complete rest if you work it into training correctly. Gives your mind a break as well.
Hope you have success.
Seeing that this post got three down votes and one up vote is not surprising. After all this is LR. The coaches and athletes who read this thread but are not LR lifers should be happy though. They will excel where the run every day as many miles as you can handle crowd who down vote posts like this will struggle.
If you race 1500m and up miles count more than anything else.
Engage your glutes
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