wejo's training log

Gotta control yourself. Easy days are just that, easy. Bring some headphones along and listen to the radio. That'll make you run slow. Or wear a baggy shirt and and long shorts, something not considered "fast running clothes". Giving yourself the "Im running slow today" image really helps.

You wrote in 1) "It's hard for me to accept the whole "running slow" thing. How does slow running help you on recovery days? Why run at all if you're going to go slow?"

I don't have factual evidence (does anybody really?), but I can explain by the following observations:

1) When running slow, you probably don't further "damage" muscle fibers - maybe even let them heal more properly.

2) Maintain weight through slow burn of calories.

3) Continue to "learn" how to run - that is, you are going through the motions day-in-day out.

I can't believe the detriments of "ramping up too quickly" are too hard to understand. You are putting stress on the body it is not used to. You are not "going through the gears".

If you have the time (which is often a problem) and like exercise in general, it just makes common sense to run longer and slower. Especially if you have nice trails to run on. If you live in the middle of a large city with funky smells, polluted air, maniac drivers and no sidewalks or bicycle paths - then run fast and short!

If you're interested in the experience of the nowhere-close-to-elite, I also used to run close to MP every day. I did that from the time I started running until about a year and a half ago. And it worked OK for me. I'm not fast, but between the age of 28 and 38 I improved from 19:30/39:40/3:15 to 16:48/34:40/2:45 using that approach.

But then I started to get hurt, and under the encouragement of an older buddy and the influence of the Hadd monster thread I started to slow down most of my running (except for the hard days). That worked for me OK too. I managed to shave a few seconds here and there off most of my PRs.

This year I've adopted Hadd's approach in a methodical and determined way, and have started to "shatter" (well, much better improvements than last year, anyway) my PRs at the age of 39, with the expectation of nice new PRs at HM and marathon this fall (fingers crossed).

Hadd's approach seems very similar to what wejo was doing (but there are some notable differences). The hard work (and it gets quite hard) is separated by very easy recovery sessions.

I'm not an ex phys guy, so I won't try to explain why the easy recovery running is beneficial, but it has been explained to me very clearly (damn brain just doesn't store that kind of stuff, I r an ingineer), and there are distinct and important physiological changes that don't occur if you try to hammer every day.

Of course, not everyone on this board agrees with this concept, but I think you'll find there are many who think the easy days being easy is just as improtant as the hard days being the approriate level of "hard."

Since you've got some time to think about this, why don't you read through some of the different training threads bookmarked in CarolinaRunner's info thread at the top of the page.

I should add....

"accepting the whole slow running thing..." was the hardest step for me, and it took me a full year to accept it and make the full fundamental change. Our running culture does not, in general, encourage balanced aerobic development. We (our egos anyway) think we need to run hard all the time.

Durden:The Value of Rest

Here's a shocker. The most important days in this schedule aren't the hard days, but the four easy ones per week, scheduled for Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Easy days are critical because they allow the body to recover from and adapt to the hard training done during the rest of the week. Without easy days or days off between the hard workouts, the training will break you down rather than make you stronger.

Rest, or easy days, are the most overlooked part of many programs. Typically, runners are reluctant to rest enough between hard workouts because they worry about losing ground. I was a perfect example of this during the early days of my career. I knew about former University of Oregon coach Bill Bowerman's hard day/easy day philosophy, but I thought "easy" meant not doing speedwork. To me, "easy" was still doing two 6-mile runs a day.

After injuring my right knee, I rested for a month. When I returned to training, my knee pain kept flaring up. By trial and error, I discovered that I could train one day and if I didn't run the next, the knee pain wasn't a problem. Eventually I began to run on the easy days, but the runs were gentle and no longer than 40 minutes. My knee didn't bother me again, and that spring, I ran the '78 Boston Marathon in 2:15:04, a 4-minute PR.

Notice on Chart 1 that easy days are 30- to 40-minute runs. Limiting easy days to just that length is vital to allow adaptation to the hard work that you'll be doing the other three days of the week. Resist the temptation to go longer or faster on these days.

So why not just take the recovery day completely off instead of running slow? I know there's a good answer for this. I'd just like to hear it.

this is wejo's training log:

Early Pre-Season (Feb. 2000)

All runs are at 7,100 ft. altitude and are untimed unless otherwise indicated

S A.M. 6.5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 15 miles easy on grass/road/trails

M A.M. 6.5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 14.5 miles high mountain run (starting at 8,200 ft, going up to 9,500 ft., then back down to 8,200 ft.) at slow pace but moderate effort owing to the uphill and the altitude, 5 medium to fast buildups on a level surface following the run

T A.M. 6.5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 15 miles on grass/road/trails

W A.M. 6.5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 15 miles at low altitude (1,000 ft.) w/ 7 miles in middle at high-end aerobic pace (untimed, but fractionally slower than threshold pace), 4 buildups during jog following high-end pace

R A.M. 6.5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 15 miles on grass/road/trails

F A.M. 6.5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 14 miles easy on grass/road/trails w/ 4 light to medium speed buildups near end

S 24 miles easy at 3,200 ft. altitude on grass/trails w/ last several miles gradually picked up but untimed (water every few miles)

Total mileage for week = 151.5

(Weldon's highest week ever)

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Late Pre-Season (March 2000)

S 13 miles easy on trails

M A.M. 5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 13 miles comfortably-paced high mountain run (8,200 ft. to 9,200 ft.) w/ 4 buildups near end

T A.M. 6 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. (Altitude of 4,500 ft., repeats done on dirt track) 2.5 miles jog, 4 buildups, 2 strides, 5 x 1,600 @ 5:03, 4:53, 4:53, 4:52, 4:36/ 400 meters jog between each, 3 miles jog w/ 4 medium to fast buildups included

W A.M. 6 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. 14 miles easy on grass/road/trails

R A.M. 5 miles easy on grass/trails

P.M. (Low altitude of 1,000 ft.) 2 miles jog, 4 buildups, 3 strides, 8 miles @ 5:10 start, 5:04 average in middle, 4:46 last mile, 3 miles jog w/ 4 medium to fast buildups included

F 10 miles easy on grass/road/trails

S 25 miles easy at 3,200 ft.altitude on grass/trails w/ last few miles slightly picked up (water every few miles)

Total mileage for week = 122.5

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Competitive Season (April 2000)

S A.M. 5 miles easy on grass

P.M. (Altitude of 4,500 ft., repeats done on dirt track) 2 miles jog, 4 buildups, 2 strides, 10 x 1,000 @ 3:10 start, 3:07-3:09 for next seven, 3:04, 3:01 on last two/30-35 secs. jogs between each, 400 jog after last rep, 1 x 400 @ 63, 2 miles jog

M A.M. 6 miles easy on grass

P.M. 10 miles easy on grass/road/trails

T A.M. 5 miles easy on grass

P.M. (Low altitude of 1,000 ft.) 2 miles jog, 4 buildups, 2 x 200 @ 33, 31 (to warm up further and to establish pace), 6 x 800 @ 2:09 for first five, 2:07 on last one/2 min. jog between each, 800 jog after last rep, 3 x 300 @ 50, 45, 42 w/ 100 meters walk/jog (@ 40 secs.) between each, 2 miles jog

W 9.5 miles easy on grass/road/trails

R 5 miles easy on grass + 4 light to medium speed buildups

F 2 miles jog, 4 buildups, 3 strides, Mt. SAC Relays 10,000 @ 28:27.58 (5th overall, 2nd American, PR by 1:22.10 - amazing!!!!!), 3 miles jog after race [Weldon had run only three track workouts involving faster speeds than he ran in this race, still more proof that constant killer track work is unnecessary if the aerobic base is solid!]

S 10 miles on grass/trails

Total mileage for week = 85

To give another example - go look at Malmo's training log from Bob Hodge's site. Look closely at 1985 and you'll find so many days labelled 'easy' it'll make your head spin. Fast running is good, but no more important than slow stuff.

Is there a place to view Wejo's training log?

paragonrunning.com

Easy is relative. I remember reading somewhere on this site Malmo saying he rarely (ever?) went out the door slower than 6:00 pace.

Alan

Wow, something I'm SORT of qualified to answer. I am an ex phys guy and like you, I love to run but am far from elite.

After starting to run in my early 20's, my performances started to plateau. I was doing about 40-50/ week when I was training "hard" for something. I stopped doing road races for a while and just ran for fun for a few years.

I'm 37 now and over the last year I've increased my miles to where I'm up to around 75-80/week with about 3 quality days per week. While this is far from the volume of the big boys, I'm setting PR's every time I run nowadays and the volume feels easier than the 50 /week used to feel. One key that I've found in all of this is going easy on the easy days.

I think the physiological reasoning behind this comes with fiber-type recruitment. The motor units are recruited in a ramp-like fashion, with ST recruited with low intensity contractions and FTA's and FTB's added as intensity increases. Interestingly, the onset of recruitment of FT motor units occurs right around lactate threshold.

So, when you are running easy, you are essentially contracting ST motor units over and over. Hadd pointed this out on his old thread, but different types of training are specific to the fiber types recruited. From rat models, we know that low-intensity work below threshold causes selective adaptations in ST fibers and higher intensity work causes adaptations in FT fibers. Therefore, on days where you are running below threshold, or below marathon pace as you put it, the idea is to: A) make some adaptations in ST fibers, and B) burn some calories as one earlier post pointed out. The point is that when you are exercising in this domain, intensity doesn't matter. I actually go for time on these days instead of distance in order to keep myself going slow.

One good question in this thread was "Why run at all on the easy days then?" One potential answer has to do with the triggers for mitochondrial adaptations in skeletal muscle. Some of John Holloszy's work suggests that calcium, which is released from muscle is actually one of the triggers for increasing mitochondrial density in skeletal muscle. So, on days when you are running slow, you are increasing calcium concentration for a prolonged period of time in ST fibers, thus triggering mitochondrial adaptations.

As a disclaimer, that latter part is a pet theory, and not unequivocally established.

Anyway, hope that helps. Keep up the miles, go lights out on the hard days and run easier than easy on the "off" days.

tylersdog, what "Chart 1" are you referring to and what was your overall mileage when you ran 2:15:04 behind Tom Fleming and Rodgers et al.?

Thank you.

Pretty sure he was quoting Benji Durden's stuff there...

Another overlooked factor to running easy on recovery days is that you are still able to train the musculoskeletal system to tolerate the stress of running. A key ingredient to avoid overuse injuries which will stop any runner's progress on a dime.

If you want running to be a lifelong friend stay injury free and be patient.

Pardon my Gallowayishness, but is cross training ever worth considering in one's training plan?

most people run to hard on the easy days ...

and not hard enough on the hard days

Lone Star wrote:

tylersdog, what "Chart 1" are you referring to and what was your overall mileage when you ran 2:15:04 behind Tom Fleming and Rodgers et al.?

Thank you.

Pete was right...he was referring to Benji Durden. It's all on this link:

I believe that the below is true. A lot of runner's have found that their endurance level goes up when they put in the mileage. From a scientific perspective, consider how it is for the heart or for muscle fibers that gets exposed to chronic stimulation during laboratory experiments. The mitochondrial levels of those fibers become really high. As a result, such muscle fibers will become really good at using fat and lactic acid as energy sources. My belief is that the more you activate the transcription factors that cause mitochondrial biogenesis to take place, the more mitochondria and thus endurance you'll end up with.

macker wrote:

One good question in this thread was "Why run at all on the easy days then?" One potential answer has to do with the triggers for mitochondrial adaptations in skeletal muscle. Some of John Holloszy's work suggests that calcium, which is released from muscle is actually one of the triggers for increasing mitochondrial density in skeletal muscle. So, on days when you are running slow, you are increasing calcium concentration for a prolonged period of time in ST fibers, thus triggering mitochondrial adaptations.

As a disclaimer, that latter part is a pet theory, and not unequivocally established.

Anyway, hope that helps. Keep up the miles, go lights out on the hard days and run easier than easy on the "off" days.