Time: 63:46
Distance: 8.56 miles
Pace: 7:27
Map
It's the third time this week that I ran the medium Freedom Park loop as Meagan likes to call it. This outing, however, was with Jenna as she decided to meet up with us this morning. We kept things nice and easy. I challenged Jenna, who comes from a scientifically based background, to come up with a universally adopted training method. I wanted something everyone who runs accepts as being a factor in creating better distance runners. There is a lot of information out there and everyone wants to know the shortcut. For example, increasing iron intake, compression socks, consuming caffeine, supplementing nutrition, carbo loading, etc. The two methods she came up with were (a) stretching and (b) altitude training. She's probably right.
I would add interval training as (c). For all of the studies and journal articles out there promoting iron, compression, and caffeine; none of them are necessarily conclusive. We essentially decided that as long as you believe that what you are doing will make you better and the training/advice that your coach gives you is believed fully, then you will continue to mature as a runner/athlete.
I will admit that I was coming from a pessimistic standpoint since listening to the Letsrun Training Talk this week with Ricky Simms and Noah Ngeny. Simms is most well known for being Usain Bolt's agent/manager and Ngeny is the 2000 Olympic 1500m champion (he defeated El G). Ngeny also holds the second fastest mile ever run at around 3:44.xx and is the current 1000m world record holder. The training talk with Rojo (co-founder of Letsrun and current distance coach at Cornell) focused on Joseph Ebuya's recent ascent to the top of the running world by winning the World Cross Country Championships. It's an interesting interview for a long drive in the car.
During the interview, Rojo asked Simms why he coached some athletes he managed like Ebuya, but not others like Leo Manzano. Simms answered by saying that he didn't like to coach his western athletes mainly because it took too much effort. Western athletes are notorious for over-analyzing everything from their nutrition, to the amount of sleep. From how they felt on the fourth interval during the workout, to why their hamstring is just a little sore.
In contrast, Simms African athletes simply show up to practice, run the workout, go home and repeat. There is little discussion about why a workout/race went bad. It seemed that Simms runners, like Ebuya, would have a very short memory in terms of being able to forget about the past and always looking to the next race, next workout. Of course, it helps when you're extremely talented and run 13:03 for 5k in only your second race on the track. I believe those guys training in the Rift Valley all winter come prepared to dominate European races during the summer because, in their mind, they know they've worked the hardest.
Train hard, win easy.
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3 comments:
Altitude and intervals, clearly, but the jury is still out on stretching. "But distance runners do not benefit from being flexible, he found. The most efficient runners, those who exerted the least effort to maintain a pace, were the stiffest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/health/nutrition/13Best.html
I would say the jury is still out on altitude training:
Jack Daniels on altitude:
Having a great talent train at altitude doesn't prove anything about altitude training except that it (probably) didn't produce a negative reaction. Once it is the "in" thing to do then everyone with good talent wants to make sure they aren't overlooking some little thing so they hop on the band wagon. Some improve, some don't. Typically you don't hear about the ones who try altitude training and fail, because who cares. So, those who get better (for whatever reason) are accepted as having benefitted by altitude. So a guy who leaves a hot, humid, stressful life at sea level goes to a cool, dry, relaxing altitude site for awhile and gets better --must be the altitude, right? How many American women are beating Joan Benoit Samuelson's US marathon record (set many moons ago)-- maybe we aught to all start living in "oceanside" tents.
1) I look at altitude training as a type of training. Similar to deciding to increase your mileage -- for some gong up to a considerably greater mileage is a positive experience, others may encounter trouble. Some benefit from including more fast stuff in their usual program, some benefit from altitude. You typically hear about the runners who do something new and make a significant breakthrough, but seldom hear about those who do the same "new" thing and don't benefit.
(2) I've seen runners follow different altitude programs and improve, or not.
(3) We had success with several weeks at altitude (living and training there)
(4) We had more success when we spent a few weeks at AL then a week at SL then back to AL and back to SL, etc. Ryun flew down to SL after 3 weeks at A:L and broke the WR in mile the same 24 hour period. Did the same thing a week or two later in the 1500 WR race (with a 61 first 400 and 2:49 last 1200). We had 6 subjects in that year's study (live and train high, spend a week at SL and repeat) and those 6 set 14 PRs back at SL (some in rarely-raced distances, but positive experiences none the less)
(5) We had a group of elite swimmers, who were all tested at SL then half trained 4 weeks at AL while the other half did similar training at SL. In post-training tests the AL group increased VO2max 5.6% and the SL group improved VO2max 6% -- both improved in that sense during their training camp. In SL races, the AL group swam 11 PRs and the SL group swam 4 PRs. Is that significant?
(6) As a result of many altitude studies I have taken part in, the most certain comment I can make is that if you train properly you won't be hurt with some time at altitude. Is that a chicken way of saying it will make you better? However, I have seen some not get better, but was it the altitude or the individual's attitude about being there, or being away from a more comfortable environment?
(7) Regarding live high, train low, on a daily basis (as opposed to living and training high and then going low for awhile, which is what I prefer), the two methods hav enot been compared. I know that we had similar improvements (if not more) with the live and train high model compred to what others have had with the daily up and down regimen.
(8) I tend to not put much stock in the loss-of speed and power thing for those who live and train high. I think training can be adjusted to prevent that, or time at altitude can be put into the overall program at a time when speed is not the issue
(9) If live high and train low is better than just being there and training, I am a little worried as to how much faster the East Africans will get when they start doing that. I may be missinformed, but I don't think they do -- don't they just live and train at altitude then come down for some time?
(10) Being in a comfortable environment is important, and for some that may work well, not gong to AL for others, the change may be a relaxation in itself. As is the best measure of who is the best 1500 runner the one who wins the race, so is the benefit of altitude associated with the runner who performs better as a result of using it (not always whose VO2max or blood chemistries show the greatest change)
stolen from Letsrun
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