Imagine for a minute that your aim is to run a marathon in 3 hours. You effectively have two ways to structure this into a goal. Among all of the other details you should include, you could say either:
1)I am not going to run slower than 3 hours in my marathon
2)I am going to run faster than 3 hours in my marathon
Both sound the same, but may end up providing very different outcomes.
You see, just about any goal can be phrased in a positive way or a negative way, and it is always the positive ways that will be the most effective.
There seems to be so many theories about long runs during marathon training. How often should you run? How far to run? How many long runs? How fast? It is my turn to give some opinions and theories about this topic.
I believe that building mileage for a marathon is the biggest robber of performance. Training for weeks and weeks plus adding mileage leaves a person worn out. Weeks and weeks of long runs add to this exhaustion.
You have no doubt heard of long slow distance runs or LSD for short. I prefer to call these types of runs, running slow to run fast. This weekly long run is the cornerstone of all distance running programs. By adding the use of heart rate monitors a runner can improve the effectiveness of long runs significantly.
A simple formula is needed to calculate the effort level of these runs. The formula 180bpm minus the user’s age was popularized by the great triathlete Mark Allen. Using this formula Mark Allen went onto to build his enormous aerobic capacity.
Example: 180bpm (180-your age = heart rate limit)
- 35 years old
145 bpm heart rate limit
This is a preview of
How Running Slower Will Help You Run Faster
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Read the full post (357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)
Almost all novice marathoners make the same mistake in their marathon training schedule. I made it while training for my first half-ironman triathlon and ended up with a knee injury that prevented me from running for two years. A teammate from my rowing team can’t run without pain to this day because of a mistake he made in college while training for a marathon.
The mistake is only natural. In fact, it’s part of our value system as Americans. It’s the idea that if some is good, more must be better.
This is a preview of
Does Your Marathon Training Schedule Make The Most Common Mistake Of All?
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Read the full post (680 words, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)
