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Aerobic Workouts: Progression Runs

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Progression runs are not only a great way to get a significant aerobic stimulus, they are also an indicator of your ability to run by feel. Let me explain.

Because a progression run has you running progressively faster throughout the run, you have to gauge your effort early in the workout. While you don’t want to run so slow to start this workout that you’re not being challenged, there is a tendency to run a bit too fast on the first segment of the progression run. You’ll have to speed up at three points in this run, so you have to make sure that in the first section you are being challenged, but running conservatively. If you are skilled at running by feel, this won’t be a problem, but if you’re still honing that skill then knowing what rhythm you can run and still be able to speed up three times will pose a challenge.

I really like a 50-minute progression run as the bread and butter version of this run. Do 20 minutes steady, 15 minutes a bit faster, 10 minutes a bit faster, 5 minutes fast but controlled. If you do a 10-minute warm-up and a 10-minute cool-down then you have 70 minutes of running. If you do LMLS before the run and SAM after the run then you’ll work out for 90 minutes, start to finish. This is a realistic amount of time to ask of even the busiest adult runner, let alone a high school or collegiate athlete training in the off-season. [Read more…]

I love…

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I love fartleks because they develop the aerobic metabolism and they teach athletes to run by feel, which is much better than learning to run by a watch or GPS.

I love long runs because long runs develop the aerobic metabolism, long runs strengthen the mind and long runs improve the athlete’s ability to concentrate while uncomfortable.

I love progression runs for their simplicity.  Start a run and speed up as the run progresses.  That’s it – just keep speeding up as the run processes.  After a successful progression run the athletes has greater confidence in their ability to speed up at the end of a race, to run faster when they’re extremely uncomfortable.

I love the 2k section of Marshall Road in south Boulder. [Read more…]

Running Hard, but Running Controlled: Long Runs

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Let me preface my comments by saying that for many runners – runners of all ages – there needs to be a build up of the long run to a level that they will maintain for months.  This post pertains to that long run, not the preceding long runs where the athlete is building their volume.

I firmly believe that to fully develop the aerobic system you have to run a weekly long run.  And that run should not be slow.  Doesn’t have to be a “race from the gun” type long run (though I’ve done my fair share of those) but at the least it should be a progression of running that takes the athlete through faster paces as the run progresses.  Or, say you’re running 17 miles.  You run the first six really easy, then the next four still talking, then you run five at a pace where you could talk but you probably aren’t talking, and then you squeeze it down just a bit more for those final two miles.

That said, when you do a hard long run, you should be able to say, “I could have run one, two or even three miles longer at that pace.  Those extra miles would have been really hard – maybe even felt like a race – but I could have done it.” [Read more…]

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