How To Train Smarter

Do you ever wonder if you are running or training the right way?
As a newbie or even a long time runner, do you sometimes ask
yourself these questions?

What can I do to be a better runner or faster runner?

● How fast should I be running?
● What pace should I train or race at?
● Why do I get very tired or need to walk in some of my runs?
● Why can’t I get faster in my daily runs or races?
● Why do I slow down late in races?
● Why do my shins and knees hurt during my runs?
● How does my pace compare to other runners?

There are so many questions and many of the answers can be found by analyzing your plan and training approach.

Misinformation and Confusion

There is much info out there on running and training, but you get confused or feel you haven’t been given the proper guidance or are executing properly. Perhaps you have misinterpreted what you have read or heard from friends, other runners, internet, magazines etc. Many beginners and even seasoned runners are making mistakes in their training. I was having a discussion with a guy at the gym recently. He just got off the treadmill and looked very tired and sweating. We were talking while getting some water. I asked how his run went. He said he was exhausted and explained he has been running for 20 years and participates in the popular local races each year including a 10K event coming up in a few weeks. He says he can’t get faster in his pacing and is getting a bit slower year to
year. I asked about his training. He says he does all of his runs very hard for 3-5 miles and is always very tired at the end. He does this 3-4 days a week and is usually around a 9:00 minute pace which is what he races at as well and can’t ever get any faster or consistently get in the 8s for pacing. He has been running and training this way for years. When I told him my comfortable training paces were around 2:00 minutes per mile slower compared to my 5K to half marathon racing paces he looked at me with a surprised look and said, “This makes no sense. How can you run so slow in training but race so fast”? More on this later, but it is important to know that it’s not your fault your training strategy is not yielding the results you are after. It’s time to figure it out so you can stay healthy and improve your running performance long term. It starts now.

Running Hard Often? Don’t Do It!

You have a natural instinct to run so you just want to GO! To get better and get faster at running you may think you have to run fast often or as fast as you can each time you run. You want to keep beating times from your previous training runs looking for
results. You push hard and may be forced to walk at times because you are breathing hard or your legs are burning. STOP! This really is not training. Each time you do this type of all-out effort, your body is reacting as if you are doing a high effort race. It’s very draining and damaging to your body if done often. It may be just a 1 mile run, 3 mile run, 6 mile run or more but by training this way, you over stress yourself and recovery takes much longer. This is not training. It is STRAINING. Pushing through each run or run/walk like this and “racing” every time you run is an injury or an ache waiting to happen. These all-out runs are a major shock to the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system. In time or immediately after, your body will start to hurt and you may place blame on your shoes, lack of stretching, poor eating, lack of water or whatever else you can think of. You wonder what you’re doing wrong. It also affects you mentally. It puts you in a bad place. The truth is, you keep tearing down and never allow your body and energy systems time to recover fully and come back stronger and faster. Recovery is a major part of training. It is a priority for my athletes, because you can’t get faster and stronger without proper recovery. You have to be patient with your progress. Most of us want instant results or remember when we were kids and could run forever. Things change. If you don’t train the right way, you will get frustrated with the aches and pains and look for answers and may just stop and say running hurts or is too hard. You blame “running”. Running is not to blame, your training approach is to blame. What to do?

Run Slower

Run slower? “Come on Todd, this doesn’t make sense. Seriously”? Yes, you need to have a plan for each run and easy or slower runs need to be a big part of each week. Seasoned and higher mileage runners need to mix in a lot of runs that feel easy and then add in some faster runs or workouts as well. This is training with structure and a SMART Approach. 80-90% of weekly miles should be at a comfortable or non-strained pace. For beginners, it is closer to 90% – 95% of the time. Early on, it is so important to mix walking with running for several weeks or months and avoid a lot of faster running. Note: I have authored a beginner running plan called NO RUN to 3.ONE if you need guidance to run your first 5K or if just starting out. Beginners should not have any expectations of running continuously for X amount of miles for the first several weeks. You MUST allow your body to adapt to the impact and stresses of running. If you have not run for many years or just starting, the first few months are crucial and may play a part in whether you end up being an occasional runner or a lifetime healthy runner. You may spend a lot of time walking and this should be by choice and is ok. If you are forced to walk, you are training wrong. Try to run/walk over 20-40 minutes and finish feeling like you could have done more. This is training and helps you slowly build your aerobic base and your body and connective tissue strength. I repeat, if you are very tired and crawling back to the house, you have done something wrong and will not be as productive as you could be and your long range progress will be in jeopardy.

Build Your Aerobic Base

To get faster at any distance or in any race of 2 miles or longer, you need to build and keep building your aerobic base. Your base fitness is responsible for or contributes to about 90-95% of your race time performance. The other 5-10% comes from speed work and race specific work. Here is an analogy. Think of a big 2 tier chocolate cake as your aerobic base. Think of the icing as the faster, harder workouts and runs that make you more tired and strain you. Icing is such a small part of the big cake right? The cake still tastes good without the icing. You can still perform very well in runs and races without the faster work or speed work. However, when you combine both in just the right quantities, you get optimum taste and optimum race performance and results.

Aerobic base is miles, more miles and even more miles to build that aerobic engine. This base allows you to run more and more and recover better too. Every mile you put in gets stored for later benefit. You can continue to build your base over many years and keep improving. Early in your running journey or in the off season, most of your miles (80-95%) should be easy pace to build your base and teach your body to run efficiently and utilize more fat/fatty acids as an energy source (more aerobic) rather than digging in and depleting your carb stores (more anaerobic) on a regular basis. If you do a lot of reading you will come across Zone 2 Heart Rate training. This is a big part of base building. It simply means you are running at a lower less stressful heart rate and can easily have a conversation with someone or can sing a song if alone.

When you are running hard often, you are digging into carb stores at a high rate and too soon which means more lactic acid production and an inability to deal with it and handle the increased oxygen demands of your muscles. This is the draining, tired, leg burning feeling you get when you are out of breath and feel like you have very tired legs. Nausea and dizziness can be present as well. You getting tired and sore rarely has anything to do with your shoes, lack of stretching or foam rolling etc. I am not saying these things don’t have value, but if you are tired or breathing heavy in your runs and have heavy legs regularly, you are teaching your body to run inefficiently. This will put a halt to your long-term progress very quickly and likely get you injured. This simply is not SMART training.

It is important for me to say again….having a big aerobic engine, base, cake, foundation, large bank account or whatever you want to call it is the key to faster race times and is a fundamental part of a SMART APPROACH to training. Look at 2 runners with the same genetics……a 40 mile per week runner who has 2000 miles accumulated over a year compared to a 15 mile per week runner who has 750 miles accumulated over a year. The first runner will have much faster race times because the aerobic base, stamina and running skill is so much greater and stronger. This leads to better race performances and the ability to run at a faster pace for longer and with more comfort.

What Pace?

Beginners should run easy and not be concerned with a specific time or pace. Run at a pace that allows good form but does not push the pace. This isn’t as fun or you may feel you should run faster to get ready for your first goal race in 8 weeks. Well, you should have thought about your goal race many weeks/months before and started training much earlier, right? Your goal is to allow adaptation to your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal system. This takes many weeks and months. You need to build up your cardiovascular system so it works more aerobically and not always pushing you toward oxygen debt where you are breathing hard and your muscles and joints are hurting. This goes back to the training vs. STRAINING approach. DO NOT rush the process or you likely will get into trouble.

Once you are in the flow and feeling more fit or if you are a more seasoned runner who has raced often with good race strategy, then below are some general guidelines for pacing and smarter training workouts to do during a typical week. I would not recommend hard effort more than 1-2 times per week. If you are running 4-7 times per week you would do your easy training runs regularly and then choose 2 additional harder runs from the options below. True beginners should be focused mainly on the easy training runs or run/walk over several weeks.

Common Training Runs

EASY/COMFORTABLE Pace Training Runs

2:00 – 3:00 minutes per mile slower than your current 5K race pace (the pace you could run a 5k that day) where you can hear your breathing yet feel comfortable during the run and still have energy left at the end. You should be able to have a conversation with a running partner with ease on these runs. These midweek miles are as important if not more important than the weekend long run. These typically are 20-60 minute runs. Perhaps 75-90 minutes if you are running 50+ miles per week. You can mix in 4-8 STRIDERS on 1-2 of these runs per week to break up monotony of the easy run or do them after a faster day. (think quick and pick up the pace for 15-20 seconds to reach 80-90% of your max speed. You stride out, maintaining good running form and controlled breathing). Easy training runs help in recovery and maintaining and building up your mitochondria and aerobic base. If you feel tired from your last
run, you have the flexibility to run these as slow as you need to.

Long Run

1:30 – 2:30 minute per mile pace slower than current 5k race pace. A long run should be done weekly and is crucial to building your base. If very warm or going past 90 minutes then add electrolytes in your drink and add gels, gummies etc. if needed. Also, practice fueling in your long runs as your HALF or FULL event approaches. Long runs are about time on your feet and teaching your body to utilize more fats as an energy source and running more efficiently. Effort should feel easy and you can carry on a conversation with a partner. Toward the end of long runs you will get somewhat tired and more drained as your carb stores and hydration level drops. More advanced runners can mix in faster running in these long runs but under the guidance of a coach or structured plan. The long run should be well under 50% of your weekly miles and ideally closer to 30% of your weekly miles to reduce your risk of injury.

Tempo Run

30 – 60 seconds slower than 5K race pace. Think about effort if it is tough for you to figure out your exact pace. It should be a challenge to carry on a conversation with a partner but you could. You should never be forced to walk. Earlier on in your race plan aim closer to 45-60 seconds slower than 5K race pace and progress closer to 30 seconds slower than 5K race pace as the goal race approaches. It is preferable to break these up into reps like 3 X 7 minutes or 4 X 5 or 2 x 15 minutes with 1-2 minutes of easy jogging between reps depending on length of rep. A 20-40 minute continuous run can be done as well with a gradual progression in pace. The longer the tempo runs, the pace will be a bit slower. Increase pace gradually with the continuous tempo runs. These runs help you manage the painful by-products of harder training and build aerobic stamina as well. These are somewhat hard but not exhausting at all.

Note: All faster running workouts should always include 1-2 miles of easy warm up and 1-3 miles of cool down jogging.

Have A Plan

Let’s go back to my conversation at the beginning of the article. My gym friend who runs all his training runs at a 9:00 minute pace and can only race a 10K at that same 9:00 minute pace. He is always digging and going deep into his carb stores early and often in training. Each run is hard, and he does not utilize as much fat as an energy source as he should and continues to run inefficiently. He does not vary his paces or intensity. From month to month or year to year he is always around that same old darn 9:00 minute pace and running and breathing hard every time he runs. This is not effective.

How about me? I run my easy/comfortable runs and longer runs at closer to 8:30-9:00 minute pace. My breathing is controlled. These comfortable runs are about 80-90% of my miles per week depending on the time of year. I recover well and feel stronger during my 1 or 2 harder running days or workouts per week when I mix in some tempo and interval work at faster paces. I train mostly at 8:30-9:00 minute paces but can go run a 10K at sub 7:00 minute pace. My friend can’t believe it. Well, I am training smart with a plan. My friend is always straining which is not so SMART and puts his progress to a grinding halt.

Consistent, smarter training with a plan of attack always beats constant hard training 100% of the time. It is so crucial to have this mindset if you want to have a lifetime of healthy running, continued progress and the ability to beat your race times year to year and have fun. This can only happen if you progress slowly and have patience. Your body will adapt and recover well when you train and pace the right way – SMARTER!