The Training Wisdom of John Kellogg

Slow runs:

These should be slow enough so as to give the feeling of "storing up energy" (Ernst van Aaken called this pace a "super-O2" pace). The only thing which might present any difficulty is the sheer time spent out there; otherwise, the effort should be completely conversational. Relaxation is paramount. Water and/or "road race" fluids should be taken every 20-30 minutes (depending on weather conditions) to stay hydrated and to practice taking race day fluids with ease while running.

Primary benefits include fatiguing "slow twitch" muscle fibers to the point where "fast twitch" ones must be mobilized to continue the energy output, increasing capillarization, improving mitochondrial density, neurological and psychological relaxation (which promote efficient running mechanics), incrementally (and, hopefully, SAFELY) increasing muscle and joint integrity, balancing glycogen/fat metabolism, and simply becoming familiar with the feelings of running long. The last 1-2 miles of such a run should be SLIGHTLY picked up to reinforce correct muscle fiber recruitment and to gradually train the body to handle increased carbohydrate metabolism when somewhat fatigued. A slight pickup at the end of a long run may also provide some psychological benefits.

It's probably a good idea during a pre-season to build these up in duration until they are just a little over two hours long (occasionally longer for runners who specialize at distances above 5,000m). While increasing the duration, the long run day should be treated as a HARD day (low to moderate mileage and little or no intensity the day before, low mileage and no intensity the day after). For those who will race 2-4 times per month once the competitive season arrives, assuming the long runs have been at 2-ish hours a few times, the weekly long run can be reduced to about 90-95 minutes for maintenance (as Lydiard said, "Jealously guard your good condition ..."). At this point, the long run can come the day following a race (and probably the day before a moderately hard workout), since 90-ish minutes will no longer be any strain.

Accelerated runs:

These are more directed WORKOUTS of 90-120 minutes. Done in a manner most people would associate with Japanese/Kenyan style (although Americans also did them like this decades ago), they feature a very slow start (like the aforementioned super-easy runs), and aerobic equilibrium should be achieved long before any pace changes take place. This means breathing pattern, muscular recruitment, heart rate, perceived effort, and mechanical rhythm should all be stabilized (in simple terms, the pace should feel GOOD N EASY ). Once this equilibrium is attained, a very slight increase in pace can take place every 10-20 minutes until the final miles (sort of like a graded exercise test on a treadmill). The last few miles are normally run slightly faster than marathon race pace (fractionally slower than half marathon pace), with the ultimate 2-3 minutes REALLY MOVIN' (@ 10,000 pace). This may take lots of practice to get the correct feeling. The runner should feel "on top of" the pace (i.e., in control and NOT struggling) even through those last few minutes. It should only be a workout, not a race effort, and should be something that can be recovered from within 2-3 days. Again, fluids should be taken before, during, and after the run.

These workouts provide more stimulus for aerobic development than the really slow ones do, but - IF the overall mileage is adequate - they should not be done on EVERY long run day; otherwise, recovery time will be too long to integrate other aspects of training into the overall scheme. Besides EXPIDITING all the benefits mentioned for the slower long runs, these acceleration runs also improve running economy (the ability to use oxygen more efficiently and preserve stored fuels) and improve the ability to metabolize small amounts of lactate before a spike is reached and the "threshold" is crossed.

Pace runs:

These are usually reserved as "dress rehearsals" at target pace for an upcoming marathon race and can involve distances anywhere from 12 to 20 miles. Pre-race fluids/foods and in-race fluids are taken for practice (but no taper or special supercompensation scheme is undertaken during the days before), and the run is done as close to goal pace as possible for the early miles. The last few miles are gradually squeezed down to a faster pace. There should be 2-3 of these prior to the target race, spaced about 3 weeks apart, with the last one 3-4 weeks out from the race. These are very hard runs and will obviously require several days of easy running for full recovery.

During the off-seasons, experiment with going slightly higher than you've ever been for a few days in a row. It doesn't have to be done in 7-day blocks; 3-5 days at a time of higher mileage is fine at first. Recover from that injection of higher mileage with a lower week or two, then go up in mileage for several days again. Run EXTREMELY RELAXED during the times which you are pushing up your mileage to previously unattained levels. DO NOT increase both mileage and intensity at the same time until you've done several seasons of each SEPARATELY. You CAN run some short (15-30 secs.) buildups or strides every other day to provide variety, but avoid "knee-grabber" anaerobic workouts and races.

With each passing year, you'll be able to increase both the mileage itself and the length of time you're spending in your high mileage phases. By the time you're in your mid-20s, you should be capable of several WEEKS in a row of VERY high mileage without needing a low week and without having any stress-related problems. Your average pace will probably also become much faster than it once was, but you don't need to FORCE that. At some point, you'll find that you can hit a pace at near the high end of aerobic effort on MANY (if not most) of your easy runs and will recover within a day's time. You must always start laughably SLOWLY on EVERY run in order to do this type of training successfully, though, and it's not something you should consiously worry about improving. Just allow the faster running to come to you over the years as your body becomes ready for it.

As far as mileage goes, though, start INTRODUCING it in short stints when you're YOUNG, but allow your body to "absorb the training" by dropping back down in mileage for a little while between high segments. Push those boundaries out more and more (and with ever longer stints) from year to year as you mature.

... are the two main differences between people who can reach the high end of aerobic effort day after day and those who need to have slower days between their high-end runs (or harder workouts).

If you tend to use LESS oxygen than most people as you run close to your "threshold", you'll almost certainly be the type of runner who can spend a fair amount of time at a high-end aerobic pace several days per week. Some of this "economy" appears to be a HEREDITARY trait, although it can definitely be trained to some degree. If you have NATURALLY good economy, you'll find it much easier to recover very QUICKLY after you run at your threshold. All of the crap above is a roundabout way of saying that some people can handle "threshold training" better than others. It CAN be trained a little over time, though, and it WILL help your long-term development to improve that aspect of your fitness, so you should experiment a little with it during unimportant times during an off-season, see how you respond, and learn from that, maybe adding more of it during subsequent preseasons.

Also, if you are light for your height or if you have more of a marathoner's "shuffle stride", you'll likely be able to maintain a faster average training pace without grinding yourself into the ground. I know somebody's going to come up with counter-examples of this; for instance, one of the FIRST runners to hit a near-maximum steady state day in and day out - Peter Snell - was a bit stocky compared to many of today's top runners. But ... he was only running about 5:30-5:45 pace as a maximum repeatable high-end pace (as opposed to the 4:45-5:00 pace that some of the "threshold trainers" are hitting these days). So, once he worked a little on that point of his fitness, that pace was not really that big a deal for him and was something which obviously TRAINED him rather than STRAINED him. Plus, his ECONOMY at those medium speeds was probably VERY good.

All in all, I'd suggest the more traditional "hard-easy" approach MOST of the time, but to EXPERIMENT with some high-end running on back-to-back days AS LONG AS YOU FEEL GOOD doing it. The day AFTER a high-end effort, always set out on your run as though it was going to be a regular EASY run, but if the feeling grabs you as you get into the run or if the "magic" is there, THEN "run for the barn".

By all means DO some specific hill training for about a month of the preseason. If done properly, it will prepare you for faster running with minimal risk of overtraining anaerobically. It also develops aerobic enzyme activity in a variety of muscle groups. Oh, crap, that was jargon, wasn't it? Well, whether you like it or not, you should learn WHY you're doing something.

Those time trials are what MOST people do as "high-end" runs. But these things are supposed to be more time-conscious efforts than a true high-end run. The high-end run (or as Lydiard called it, "maximum steady state" - which I would term "REPEATABLE maximum steady state") can be done on a near-daily basis in the "long aerobic running" phase. The way to spend time at your TRUE LT (which for some of these guys is about 4:40 per mile) several days per week is to start at a LAUGHINGLY slow pace and make DEAD SURE you re-establish your equilibrium each time you increase your speed (and NEVER increase the speed so suddenly that your breathing pattern changes NOTICEABLY). Lydiard's runners got up to a pretty good speed by the end of most of their runs - in fact, you might even say they were FLYING on some of these runs - but they were NOT fighting themselves to "make something happen". Note: you MUST do some limited faster running as well in order to expidite your progress at high-end running.

Now here comes some more of what the unenlightened would call "pseudoscience", but which is ACTUALLY MEASURABLE stuff (I am now touching my thumb to my nose, waggling my other fingers, and blowing my raspberry at those who hate physiobull - PBTHLBT!!!!!): Did you know that many top runners run at only about 2.5 mmol/L of blood lactate during 90% of the kind of "progression run" we're talking about here? This is quite comfortable but not necessarily SLOW. They also become very adept at monitoring their pace increases near the END of these runs so that they can repeat the same type of effort (at HOPEFULLY the same basic pace) several days per week. In fact, they may even go up to 5 mmol/L of lactate for less than a minute at the VERY end of such a run, but they are still NOT fighting to do this. They are just not spending enough time at the higher lactate levels so that they would FAIL to buffer the lactate or reconvert it.

The 3-mile and 6-mile time trials that Lydiard advocated are VERY important components of transitioning fitness. They can be done a couple of times per week once enough "maximum steady state" running has been done.

Now, the slam: A lot of people would LIKE very dearly for some pile of middle distance $#!+ to be the "right way" to train. Those guys lose. They'll never know the true joy of this sport or have any clue how far they could have gone performance-wise. Any of that stuff (repeat: ANYTHING) that can be done WITHOUT a Lydiard-type base can be done FAR BETTER once the base IS established. WITFH is so effing difficult about understanding that? I guess some people frankly don't WANT it badly enough to TRULY prepare.

It's SPOOKY how much of this stuff Lydiard got dead on with practically NO ONE'S shoulders to stand on. Through 20+ years of personal refinement and examination of hundreds of other careers (to separate the UNIVERSAL principles from the "experiment of one" quirks), I have only been able to make the most MINOR modifications to this near-flawless system.

A few of the fine points that Lydiard couldn't get around to addressing are:

1.) Career development goes smoothest if technique work and joint/muscle integrity are developed in the pre-teen years (up to age 15 in some people), and if gradual, INCREMENTAL exposure to high mileage in LIMITED SEGMENTS is introduced from the start. In this way, the athlete can always be preparing for a future of very high REGULAR mileage while also getting the needed adaptation time in the early years. There are some hormonal and neurological considerations as rationale for this approach.

2.) There are specific training speeds and durations which optimize your "objective function value" (getting the most profit with the least squandering of available resources). These weren't known precisely to Lydiard, but he got EXTREMELY close through trial and error alone. His long "progressive pace" runs of 20-22 miles (125 minutes for the elites he coached) was one thing he got PERFECTLY, and he also had his runners do some EXTREMELY slow jogging which was not initially included in his mileage totals (I know now to count that stuff, though, because it DOES have several real training effects - the Japanese have latched on to this, as well). Though the "trial and error" method is the ultimate science, examination of physiological processes and of other careers CAN provide some basis for refinement.

3.) There are some workouts which improve lactate "clearance" via muscle cell transport (MCT) proteins which were not known in Lydiard's day. SOME of the INDIVIDUAL workouts have been done through the ages, but there are specific distances to run and there is an optimal SEQUENCE for these types of workouts. Of course, exercise scientists will NEVER be able to figure out how to incorporate these workouts into the overall scheme, since the SCOPE of exercise science is too myopic to account for the number of variables present in a well-rounded training program. Knowledge of WHY something is working is fine, but can hardly replace trial and error. Nowadays we have BOTH laboratory-gleaned knowledge AND decades of trial and error by thousands of real running careers. The trick is putting both the knowledge and the WISDOM together in the right fashion, with a profound emphasis on the WISDOM.

Those are about the only things I can think of right now that Lydiard didn't nail, but it was probably ONLY because he didn't have TIME to do that much refinement. Look how much he got exactly! His long runs (at a progressive pace) were refined to a length of near 125 minutes. I can tell you through untold suffering that this figure is uncannily accurate. Moreover, there are MANY physical processes that occur just PRIOR to the 2 hour mark in such a progressive run which train the nervous system, the respiratory muscles, and the ability to store and access fuels (and muscle fibers) in the OPTIMAL sequence.

Unfortunately, many in the U.S. got away from Lydiard's methods and were lured by the siren song of low mileage and hard intervals and the quick fix those things can often provide. If we had only used Lydiard's endpoint as our starting point, think where we'd be now. That's what I devoted my life to during the years I was able to train at a high enough volume to make learning my lessons a real possibility, so you can jolly well take my word that Lydiard's system is the ONLY basic system that will truly maximize the potential of the "mzungu". Many Africans seem to have characteristics (capillary density, myoglobin, MCT proteins) which allow them to train more intensely more often, but the white man MUST develop the endurance FIRST by spending as much time at or below the threshold as possible.

But, I ramble ... Get out there and put in the relaxed high-end aerobic running!

Last thing, if you are going to quote any of these for a question, be sure to credit the correct person. THESE ARE JK's POSTS from the old board. Be sure to change "CarolinaRunner wrote:" to "JK wrote:" - he deserves all the credit for these great posts. Thanks to JK for providing such food for thought.

Carolina Runner-

I believe that post on hill running came from the coolrunning board.

You do not perchance have other samples by JK (who posted under TG&P Oz) from there?

Also, great thread. This is what the board needs.

I went back and checked and you are right, that post was from coolrunning. The person who posted it on the old LetsRun board stated it was from coolrunning. I've actually never been on the coolrunning board so I am not familiar with anything JK posted there. All the above posts were from the old LetsRun board. Sorry I can't help you. If I do find anything else, however, I will post it on this thread.

Is 45 minutes the optimum length to run? I usually run singles doing 8-10 miles but today I did 45 and feel much better..?