Simple question: How fast do your feet need to be moving in training for you to race well?

For instance, if you’ve never done any training at mile pace can you expect to run a local road road mile well? Sure, you may have done 10 x 400m with 30-60 seconds recovery, but in that workout you’re probably running closer to 5,000m pace rather than mile pace.

The point I’m trying to make is simple: if you want to race to your potential, then you have to do some running that is as fast, or even faster than, the given race distance.

In Simple Marathon Training the assignments for strides are never faster than 5k pace. On Monday and Friday athletes are assigned five 20, 25 or 30 second strides with roughly 60-90 seconds of easy jogging between them. Makes sense, right? If you are going to run a marathon then you need to be able to run 5k pace, yet you don’t need to be able to run mile pace.

While the above no doubt makes sense to you, my guess is that there is a very good chance that you are not doing 30 second strides at 5k pace in your training. If this is the case, then remind yourself about the neuromuscular system and how it impacts training.

Neuromuscular means exactly what it sounds like it means. It’s the intersection between the nervous system and the musculature of the human body. A sprinter has a fantastic neuromuscular system because they not only have to react to the starter’s pistol, but they have to exert a huge amount of force into the ground.

A high school 1,600m runner needs to be able to run 100m strides at 800m pace, perhaps even 600m pace. This ability to run paces faster than the 1,600m will allow the athlete to both feel more comfortable running 1,600m, but also give them a chance to “kick” at the end of the race.

In my coaching, all athletes do strides, strides that are at a pace much shorter than their primary race distance. So the adult marathoner does strides at 5k pace. The collegiate 5k runner does strides at 1,600m or 800m pace.

John O’Malley, boys cross country and track coach at Sandburg High School simply says, “Our feet are moving fast every day.” He is one of the few coaches who has boys teams competing at both the national level in cross country, as well as in relays like the 4xMile 4x800m. His athletes have their feet moving fast every day; they are one of the best boys distance programs in the country because of this focus.

If you aren’t doing strides, you need to do them. If you aren’t doing fast enough strides, consider your primary race distance and do strides a bit faster than you want to run for that race. That’s it! Do strides and do them a bit faster than your primary race distance.

The concept that there are “need to do’s” vs. “nice to do’s” in training is one that I learned by reading Vern Gambetta’s work. Vern is phenomenal coach and educator and his blog is a gem.

It’s a simple question, but one that many runners – especially well read runners who have a great deal of knowledge about training – don’t answer very well.

Let’s look at strength training.

For collegiate athletes, Strength and Mobility should come first, then, once they have a good foundation of general strength, they can move to things like kettlebells. After that, time to do some squats, weighted step simple leg step ups, dumbbell work, etc. They need to follow a simple progression of general strength to light external load (the kettlebells) to greater external load.

Those are “need to do’s” in my mind, assuming the athlete is motivated and there aren’t any odd injury patterns going into this type of training.

I think Olympic lifting is a “nice to do” for these athletes. If they a) have a coach who can teach them the proper technique and b) have the time in their day to get it in, then do it. But may college athletes lack one or both of these must haves, so Olympic lifting becomes a “nice to do.”

For the adult runner, an example of this choice is a speed development workout, which I wrote an article on for Running Times a few years back – click here to read it.

I currently only have two clients – both in their 20’s – for whom this workout would be appropriate. It’s a “nice to do” for them, and they’re young.

Could runners in their 30s, 40s or 50s do the speed development workout and get some benefit out of it? Sure, but for most busy adults with hectic lives, the speed development workout doesn’t fit due to time constraints. Also, this workout is only appropriate if the athlete has good levels of general strength before they tackle a workout with a lot of fast running.

Finally, for the adult running 5k, 10k, half marathons and marathons, race-pace work done at the end of the training cycle is a “need to do.”

5k race pace workouts are difficult and some people don’t want to do them, but you must if you want to race to your potential over 5,000m. Thus, race pace work is a need to do.

So the important question is, what will your “need to do” list be this year and what elements of training will you put in the “nice to do” category?