A lousy runner learns a few things

Very nice post! I'll add it to my personal list of posts-to-hold-onto.

I'm a life-long runner -- well, with a gap of about 15 years in there -- but a number of the things in here are lessons that I've only really taken to heart in the last couple of years. Especially the part about frequent easy/steady running. It really does work. Oddly enough.

This should almost be a sticky thread.  Great info and great descriptions.

My one regret in becoming a triathlete is that in my training week there is not time to run every day.  Being my first year it's apparent that my primary weakness is swimming and I'm MOP in biking.  My heart tells me to go back to being run-focused for the winter but my head is telling me to keep up the same type of training I'm doing now (equal parts swim, bike, run).

Great post!

x1 on Hills.  I started doing them this year for the first time consistently, and wow did my speed increase...I went from a 1:50 ish HM to a 1:35 this year.

I'm not running every day, but I think will will take your advice on #6 and give it a shot.

terrific.  you nailed it.  Took me a couple years of running to figure that out.

so- promise to help us out on this forum every time a new runner asks about a 'run less, run faster' plan with a tempo run, an interval run and a long run each week. 

Yep,  count me in. My 'coach' (a certified coach, but a friend who was offering free advice) believes in 'the only way to learn to run fast is to run fast', and I've quietly moved on. 

This is a great breakdown of and testament to what we often hear (run lots, mostly easy and sometimes hard), and it's good to hear a success story.

My question is (since you don't log your workouts) is what does a 'typical' run week look like for you?  Miles/time run per day?  Are any days run faster, or all they all at a very easy pace?  I'm trying to get into the habit of running more days a week emphasizing running easy and am looking to find out what works for folks and what doesn't.  I know everyone is different, but having some sort of starting point or template to craft into something that works for me would be helpful.  Thanks, and congrats on finding what works for you!

Thanks! I'm glad it's (potentially) helpful!

You asked: each day I run at least 4 miles, as many as 10. If I set out to do more than 6 miles, it's at my easy pace. The shorter runs are usually just on the verge of zone 3, and i'll do some bursts on those runs for 400m or so, more of a fartlek kind of thing. Sometimes though, the short run is a rest run just because of how I feel, so that will be a slow pace.  The exception is hills - no matter what I'm doing the rest of the run, I will usually repeat a hill two or three times when I come to it on a run, just for the number of ways to attack it. Time wise, I typically run during the day during the lunch hour, which admittedly is quite a great perk. My office is in a very rural area with some amazing scenic routes, with some good and gnarly hills near by. The weekend runs are in the morning, and that's where I do the longer ones as the timing permits. 

Just because I've adapted to this during the race season, I've had a race every few weeks or so that I can use as a time trial to re-baseline. My season ends in a couple of weeks, after which I'll plan to do a 10k time trial once a month at full pace to see where I'm at. For my goals, anything shorter than that wouldn't tell me what I need to know.

You pointed out I don't log my workouts - sorry. I did for a while but found it to be a chore with no return value. I'm not a 'look how far I've come' person by nature, and in terms of finding and knowing zones, paces, etc, I do that on a running total. I also only train swimming and cycling in the offseason (meaning training = building, as opposed to maintaining and racing), at which time I do keep very detailed logs, but in a notebook. My interest on BT is really only to help others as BT has helped me. I like doing the race reports as I find them helpful for others to prepare for new venues (that's what I do!!) to read others' past experiences, but that's about it

Great Post!

The one thing that I would add is Patience.  I have seen many runners join our running club and quit after they didn't improve after the first few weeks.  The Key to improving is consistency over a long period of time, you don't have to run every day but don't expect to drop a minute per mile off of a 5k by running twice a week for one month.  

When I started running again six years ago five miles was a long distance.  Now five miles is my short recovery distance with my daily average distance over seven miles.  It took me over a year of running 4-5 days a week to be able to build up my mileage to the point that 5 miles is easy.

How did you build up to running each day?  Using the 10-15% principle or more aggressive?

I just worry that someone might read this who doesn't run much and suddenly triple their running mileage in a month, getting hurt or just burned out.  Even if I ran 2 miles/day I would be running 60+ plus which is a lot for some people.  It would help if you could fill in the blanks, especially without being able to see your training ourselves. *

*An aside:  using the logs here has many benefits for little effort.  You can graph stuff, get quick totals, but also see the "softer side" of achievement by noting how a run went, how it might related to other factors, etc.   You just can't see the value without putting in the data.   For instance, in the weeks before a half marathon I might feel discouraged. Then I read what I did before the last half marathon and see I am in good shape, probably just worn out, etc.   Anyway, just wanted to share that.

My *personal* answer is no way. I started out as a BOP\MOP swimmer, and have made big gains through lots of short intervals. I spend a good amount of time in the water, but I don't do long sets (>800 yds) except on the rare occasions that I have a chance to practice in open water. As far as cycling, I only use the trainer for training and open roads for enjoyment\racing, with the lone exception of hill routes that I'll use for training. I think this has a lot to do with why I was\am\was such a lousy runner - I approached run training the same way as I do with cycling and swimming and saw very little gain and a lot of pain, which is the opposite of what I experienced in the other 2. That being said... I was born with very muscular legs, and I've been a cyclist for over 20 years having ridden many many thousands of miles before I started with triathlons. I'm shaped like many professional cyclists and swimmers, but there ain't a professional runner alive with my frame

GREAT question, thank you, I really should have mentioned that in the first place. The answer is surprising (at least to me) - nope, I did the video thing one day, worked on getting the gait down for a week, and then I just started running every day. I had read something on BT to the effect of "run so slow that your crippled grandmother could lap you", and that made it click - I was trying to "run" before my body had learned HOW to run.

 I really think the video was key - being able to see which gait produced the lowest amount of impact and then consciously switching to that slow, but very low impact gait allowed me to dramatically increase my mileage without causing any damage. What worked for me gait wise is specific to my strengths - large, muscular, heavy legs. Great at riding, crap for running. I worked out a gait that kept my hips low and my stride long behind my hips and short in front, which requires a strong impact heavy on the calf (check) and a long carry through with a strong quad (check) but very little ankle torque, since I have a lot of leg mass to move. Previously I had more of a bouncing shuffle that put a lot of stress on my ankles and knees to absorb downward impact. Very painful. It took less than a week to adapt to it, as my quads and calves were more than ready for the work load, but my groin muscles were put into play more than I was used to. Again, keeping everything slow ensured I didn't hurt myself. Pride was put WAY away.

I would venture to say that people that don't run much as you say probably don't because at some point it HURTS them to run - it shouldn't. Having gone through that a few times I can honestly say that the cycle of building through the pain and assuming it just gets better with miles is complete BS. Pain is your body's feedback - if it hurts you're doing it wrong. By the way, lactic acid buildup is painful, but that's not what I mean - I mean pain after you run that hurts just walking. I went through all that stuff until I changed my gait, lowered my intensity, and increased my frequency to daily. Now it's the complete opposite - really. Taketoday - I woke up with a stiffness in my hip (can't reverse the aging process completely!), and couldn't wait to get out and run today. Sure enough, after my lunch run I feel great, no more pain.

Thanks! I actually do that in a shorthand version during the winter months with the cycling and swimming, but I just don't see it applying to the run, except with heart rate monitoring, which I do every morning to make sure I'm not sick or over fatigued. This is really why I felt compelled to post what I did - the difference between training for running and the other 2 sports was so dramatic once I figured out what worked for me.

I had to quote because its such a great post!!  I love the "read a book" pace!  Thank  you for clarifying in a way this non runner (hello, turtle) can understand. I plan to follow these points this fall. 

"Run lots - mostly easy, sometimes hard"

Just this piece of advice right here knocked 7 minutes off of my HM time this year with no real speedwork. Great write up. It seems like there's no way running that slow would work, but somehow it absolutely does. I've preached this to several people I know that are just starting this fall and I hope they listen.