I posted this summary of Hadd style base training on another recent thread. This might help you work through the training. Apologies for any errors in this distilled version - these errors are my errors in interpretation.
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Here's a Coles' Notes version of Hadd's base training, as I understand it. Most of this comes from the original discussion thread at
www.letsrun.com
from spring of 2003.
Keep in mind as you read this – it ONLY DESCRIBES the process of building an aerobic base, which may be lacking for a lot of runners. It doesn’t say anything at all about subsequent phases of training or race specific preparation.
Disclaimer – these are my words, not the words of the dude who posted as Hadd, so misunderstandings from the original intent are mine. Also, this was written maybe 3-4 years ago, and was written for a relatively inexperienced friend. I might adjust it a bit now, but haven’t (too much real work to do). So, reader beware.
The basic principles are that workouts and easy runs should be based on appropriate effort, rather than pace, and effort is measured by watching the heart rate via a heart rate monitor. The body adapts based on how hard the heart is working, not what speed the legs are moving. The heart isn’t aware of external factors (heat, humidity, wind) the way the legs are. Adaptations in the muscles are entirely dependant on the rate that the heart is pumping and rate of lactate accumulation and dissipation.
Training is broken into different phases. In the base Phase (that this post discusses) you're working on your aerobic threshold (AeT), trying to nudge it closer to your anaerobic threshold (AnT). In later phases you’ll focus more on AnT and other things. If you skip (or cheat on) Phase I, you won’t get the optimum benefit of later Phases.
Base training concentrates on aerobic base development. It makes you stronger than an ox, and ready for later phases of training. All phases are mostly easy aerobic running, with (normally) two work sessions and a longer run each week.
Here's the gist of the base phase:
Buy an HRM and learn to love it.
Determine your HRmax plus or minus a couple of beats. You MUST know this number to get to work. Don’t guess or use textbook formulas. They’re useless. If you don’t know your HRmax, go to the track and do a good warmup (see later for proper warmup). Run 800m all out. Suck wind for maybe 30 seconds, then run 400m all out. The highest number you see on the HRM during this workout will be close to your HRmax, within a couple of beats.
Start running at 70-75% of HRmax, or less, every day until you work up to being comfortable running 50 miles per week of easy mileage. At this point, you will begin to add in stronger aerobic work sessions. These work sessions will be guided by HR, not pace. Don’t worry about pace, but track it so you can see the improvement over time. Keep the HR within the intended zones.
Space the work days two or three days apart. The body needs this recovery time to be able to adapt to the work you’ve done. A “work day” would be either a workout, long run, or race. Don’t do more than three work days in a week. Often (ie. when one is a race or particularly hard workout) you will only do two work days in a week.
During base training, you concentrate on aerobic work sessions, and the idea is to "lock in" each HR range until you could run at that HR all day (well, 60 to 75 min) without slowing down. You do this progressively, starting with lower HRs and shorter "intervals," and over the weeks ratchet up the duration of intervals, total duration of work, and working HR levels, or maybe shorten the rest between intervals.
But don't move up until you've mastered the level you're already working at.
So you might begin the program (after getting to 50 mpw of easy running comfortably) working at 80-83% of HRmax on Tuesday and Friday, and stay with that level until you can comfortably complete an hour of work without slowing down, and knowing you could keep on going at that effort and pace. As the pace-HR relationship gets locked in, you can up the second work session to 82-85% of HRmax.
So week 1, maybe you do 2 x 20 min @ 80-83% Tuesday and then 30 or 40 min @ 80-83% Friday. Next two or three weeks, maybe stay at that HRs, but get the sessions up to 2 x 30 then 60 min continuous for 80-83% work, and then maybe start to ease in something like 2 x 12 min, 2 x 15, 3 x 15, 3 x 20, 2 x 30, 60 continuous for 82-85%.
Over the following weeks, work up into higher HR ranges, with similar interval progression (85-88%, and 87-90%).
Again, don't move up until you've mastered the level you're at, keeping HR and pace steady, and finishing knowing you can keep on keeping on. You want to finish every work session feeling fairly fresh, like you’ve worked but you know you could continue at that effort. If you feel spent at the end, you’ve gone too hard, and need to ease back.
Work at this until you're at about 88% HRmax for 60-75 min continuous at a steady pace (with HR staying steady over that duration) feeling like you can keep going, and you're an aerobic monster, ready to tackle faster training and racing.
At least that's how I understand it... A few other points:
Many people find the 70-75% of HRmax running to be too slow, especially at first. Some people find they need to walk some stretches (ie. hills) to keep it below 75%. Early in Phase I, if this is the case, it’s OK to keep the easy running at 80% or less, if 75% is really too slow, but over time you should get the easy stuff below 75% as the aerobic fitness improves, and then keep it there. If you’re running a hilly course, it’s OK to let the HR drift about 10-15 beats higher than the target for short uphill sections, but don’t let it stay there for very long, and keep the overall average within the target (70-75%).
For variety, you can replace one of the strong aerobic sessions every now and then with a fartlek session which is run on the track, and consists of 200 on/200 off for 5k (or 2 x 5k later in the training). Instead of running for HR, you run the workout so that the fast 200s are roughly 5k pace, and are about 15-20s quicker than the slow ones. If you have to run the slow 200s slower than 15-20s slower than the fast 200s, then the fast ones are too quick, so slow them down.
Hadd has also suggested (very) occasional sets of short hill sprints as a way of improving form. These are run on a relatively steep grade, and you pick a distance that will take about 8 s to cover running all out. After each sprint, jog rest for a minute or two, then go again. Start with a set of 8, and maybe do two sets if you’re feeling fresh, with a long (say 10 min) jog rest between sets. This workout is not done very often, and you have to be careful not to injure yourself (your calves will talk to you the next day). Make sure of a very good warm up and cool down.
Fuel is really important. The work sessions will gobble up glycogen (the fuel in your leg muscles). Eat/drink soon after all runs. Always eat well (lots of carbs) the night before and after a workout or long run. Always. Without exception. Your legs will thank you for it.
Incorporate doubles when the mileage starts to creep up there (maybe ~ 70 mpw for some runners, as an example). Instead of running 13-15 miles on an easy day, maybe run 7 in the morning and 7 at night. Try it once a week and see if you can manage to add more.
Warm up and cool down should be a couple of miles or so easy running for the aerobic work sessions.
Every third or fourth week drop the work sessions entirely and let your body absorb the work. Assuming all else is well, you'll see improvement after three weeks, but it normally seems to take up to six weeks at one level to really nail it.
You will find that pace at certain HRs will vary depending on conditions. If it is hot and humid, expect to run 10 to 30s/mile slower than you’d like or expect. Don’t worry about it – that’s just the way it is. On these days, stick with the target HR and don’t worry about pace. The heart has no idea how humid it is outside or what pace you’re running, and it doesn’t care either. The training effect is based on effort, which the HRM judges more accurately than your watch.
If you give this a go, you'll be amazed, over time, at how easy it'll become to run for 60 minutes at efforts that start out being damn hard. Improvements don't happen in linear fashion, but every six weeks or so, you'll have a "holy shit" moment where you ask yourself, OK where the hell did THAT come from?
Ways to bugger the whole thing up:-
Racing too much during base work - this takes time to recover from until your legs feel fresh enough for the work sessions.
Only race the races. Work (but don’t ever race) the workouts – make sure you finish knowing you could keep going. Go easy on most days (easy days).
As a final note of caution/advice, the one thing that's easy to underestimate is the whole psychology of doing this training, at least for people who are used to running fast all the time.
I found it quite hard to buy into the concept cold. There's just too much about it, to me, that's counterintuitive... running slow to get fast, yeah, sure! The thing is, you work hard every week, but preserve yourself most of the rest of the week so you can give the work sessions an honest effort and get the maximum gain.
The other thing I found is that it's VERY difficult to get into the program and stick with it without always thinking "gee, this slow running is probably making me slower, I better do some fast running" and then cheating the program. Don’t cheat by throwing in some extra fast runs. It will probably hurt you, not help you.
So you can't underestimate how difficult it is to start and then stick with the program. But if you do, you might be surprised by the results.