To "A Guest": Dude, don?t trash Hodgie, you bitch! This guy is 50 times better a distance runner than 99.99999% of the guys we have out there running for the US RIGHT NOW?.and he was doing it MANY MOONS AGO. And more importantly, he MAKES SENSE!! As we all do here, he is slightly exaggerating his ideas (even he admits that training get a bit more complicated than just putting in easy miles. He mentions other ?adjuncts.?)?.TO MAKE A FRIGGIN? POINT!!! Do we need to SPELL that point out for you??? Really. OK, here it is for you, read SLOWLY.
If you wanna get good at running, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!! (at least/especially at first). Run lots of base mileage (build up slowly) at a pace YOU CAN TOLERATE. If you are too hurting one week, cut the pace back a bit. FIND YOUR PACE. You DON?T need a hear-rate monitor for that. Remember Henry David Thoreau?s wisdom? ?Simplify, simplify?? After this base, obviously you will cut back on mileage and runner faster tempo workouts. But this base is the KEY.
The point: to do this, a hear rate monitor might be of some use, but it is NOT necessary!
Marius has some good ideas, but I have 2 issues for him:
Firstly, a recent scientific study (I can give you the name if you really want) stated that his beloved Lactate Measurer is NOT such an accurate tool after all. There are MANY variables that can effect the readings, and thus, a high lactate reading really might be due just to variables, and not extra stress from a workout. This does not mean that the tool might no be useful in some ways, it just means it is not foolproof and not the cure-all for running improvement that Marius seems to state on his site where he peddles these things. How you feel is more important than your lactate reading (and of course should correspond in some way. But I think you can learn this feeling without the lactate tool)
Also on his site, he looks at all of these great runners and tries to find the common thread between their training. He REALLY wants it to be lactate threshold running, and of course, there is a good chunk of that for most runners he looks at. BUT?.the different groups of Kenyans, the Portuguese, the Moroccans?.from what I can see, they ALL utilize different training styles. The Portuguese he mentioned seems to focus on hard shorter track repeats MUCH more than longer threshold training. And though he argues that the Kenyans have a huge background of threshold training (which they might), it again seems to be the hard track workouts that bring them to the top. And the Moroccans seem to mix all types of training (Coe-like?), but not a HUGE focus on threshold running.
I am not saying that threshold training is not useful, but I AM saying that it might not be the ?silver bullet? that he claims. Like I said, the examples he gives himself, are not ALL using threshold training to the extent that he seems to argue would be necessary for success.
A SIMPLE solution? Lots of easy base mileage, gradually working in speed stuff of all LENGTHS (and do these without too much straining): 1,2,3,5,10,15,25,35 minutes hard. One can do ANY combo of those distances(times) in a workout: 2 x 25/5 x 5/3X 10/ 10 X 2/ 1 x 15,10,5,2,1. WHAT-ever! Obviously, the shorter the repeat, the speed will be a little quicker, but don?t blow it out. Later, the intensity can get a little harder. Mix ALL of these intensities and lengths together.
Finally, hit the track for specific distance repeats trying to hit specific times. 400?s at slightly below goal-race pace, 800?s at goal-race pace, 200?s well below race pace. Sometimes take more rest, and run then a little faster (or more of them), sometimes less rest and slow down the pace (or do less repeats).
Do you need special tools and genius coaches for that??? To run lots of easy base mileage, and then work in various speed combinations, hitting ALL tempos, and ALL different lengths of the repeats??? (just save the more intense efforts for alter in your season. And maybe throw in some up and down-hills runs to round things out).
I don?t think so.