Training Errors

I read the article yesterday and of course I agree (as usually do with all their articles). I've stated that here before and it is one of the reasons I always refer to training load as the most imortant aspect of endurance training. In general athletes could avoid many injury setbacks but just adopting the right load, building up slowly and posting consistent training day after day, month after month, year after year.

good read!

IMO far too many people try to run hard before they've established a solid base. The often heard advice is to not do speedwork until you've been running for a minimum of 6 months to a year AND have a solid base. A solid base is not 10-15 miles/week. It is more in the 30-50 miles/week range. This means many people should spend an entire year of running at an easy pace and build up to running substantial volume for several months BEFORE they introduce speed into their workouts.

Instead there are people who've been running 10-15 miles/week for a month or two who then want to do tempo runs and intervals. IMO that's a recipe for pain and injury for many people, especially people who are carrying some excess weight and/or have not been involved in activities that have built strong leg muscles.

Certainly there are exceptions, but many people who excel at running are those who ran substantial volumes in high school and/or college. These people may have been running 60-100 miles/week for a period of several years. Because of this base they can then reduce the overall volume and maintain or increase speed though tempo and intervals - and do this for many years after the initial base building phase.

Just my opinions. YMMV.

I thought this thread would provoke more discussion.  I guess I should have titled it "Throwing a donut at unshaved triathlete lifting weights with underwear under tri shorts".

Anyway, they posted a follow up article today, in case anyone's interested:

http://scienceofsport.blogspot.com/

They seem to downplay Chi/Evolution running as a solution but admit they don't have a lot of scientific research to back up their theories.

Ernie

You forgot "while walking into spin class".

That's all I have to add to this discusssion. I'm not a runner by trade and I'm not particularly fast. Though I will add that I've seen speed gains (at least apart from in-racing running) simply from running consistently when I was training for the 10-miler. I've slacked off a teeny bit since then, but can't wait to see what happens when I start training (smartly, of course) for the marathon.

While in general it is a good idea to have certain guidelines like run ‘x’ miles before bumping up intensity you have to think in terms of the athlete. Some athletes would benefit from running less volume but more intensity than others. Finally and again making reference to one’s physiology, I never ran in college or high school at all, I did played soccer from 5 to 15 y/o and that’s about it yet my physiology seems optimal for running and with a relative low mileage compared to others I can get to run solid paces.

Yeah.  What he said.

One other point to consider is that 'speedwork' is not an all or nothing affair.  I've been running 20+ years and I still 'ease' in to speedwork every training season, by (during late base phase) doing mild speedwork (typically shorter and fewer intervals than I will do later in the season, during build phase), and not quite as fast, but still at a decent pace.  I've felt that these workouts (call them 'pre-speed' workouts) get my body ready for the real speedwork later.

Fartlek is also a nice way to get a little variety in without committing to all-out intervals or tempo runs.  I think that a beginner running 10-15/week for a few months can throw some fartlek in for fun.  Just be sensible.