Muscle Fitness Advice

Week 4 is a great week in a training program.

We’re beginning to feel the benefits of the first few weeks. Our stride is getting stronger and more efficient. Repetitions aren’t so daunting. and we’ve been at it long enough to believe that we’re gonna make it through, that we’re going to see our training all the way through until race day!

Before detailing this week’s training, however, I want to touch upon two questions posted by readers after last week’s installment. the first reader wanted to know when it was okay to start racing. the second wanted tips on losing weight (Liz P. gave a good answer to this in the comments section from last week’s post, so I’ll just expand on it with some distance runner-specific tips).

When Is the right Time for Race Time?

Too many runners use races the way dieters use scales. they believe that a race is a good way to “test” their fitness, as if the race effort was somehow separate from the carefully structured load of a training program. To continue the dieting analogy, it’s as if a person on a diet decided to eat 5000 calories for dinner to see if their stomach could still hold that much food. that would be absurd. We’d have to question that person’s intelligence. and their sanity.

And yet we runners do the same thing all the time.

An effective training program builds incrementally toward the desired race fitness. That’s because our bodies can only repair so much damage at a time. and that’s what we’re doing when we train. We’re damaging muscle, which is then carried away and replaced with stronger muscle. then we damage a little more, running a little bit harder because we now have that expanded base of stronger muscle.

It takes time to build a fitter runner.

It’s as if we start at the bottom of a stairway stretching far up into the clouds. and we climb that stairway one step at a time. Slowly. sometimes achingly slowly.

So when do we race?

We race when the effort required for that race is just one step away … or maybe two.

Otherwise, we don’t have the trained muscle – or the aerobic enzymes or mitochondria or any of those training goodies – that allow us to run that effort without suffering more damage than our bodies can handle.

A friend of mine recently came off a prolonged “down” period and began a new training program – and was at a point roughly equivalent to where this Carlsbad training program had us as of last week. Only unlike us, he decided to race last weekend – and has an injured calf to show for it. Should we be surprised? no, it was as predictable as rain in Seattle, as corn in Iowa, as forced laughter during a Jay Leno routine.

Listen: when we run repetitions on Tuesdays at 5K-to-10K effort, there’s something I haven’t told you. But here goes: the first two minutes don’t count toward our work total. That’s because we spend those two minutes going from rested/recovered to the point where we’ve crested threshold, where we’re now demanding that our body function under the stress of greater oxygen demand (and the subsequent anaerobically produced energy demand) coupled with an increased and sustained neuromuscular load. We start counting minutes after those first two. so when we do 6 x 3 minutes, we get six minutes. when we did 4 x 4 minutes last week, we got 8 minutes. Our eventual goal is to accumulate 12-15 minutes of work. Then we’ll be ready to race.

When we go from 6 x 3 minutes to a race that lasts 15 to 25 minutes, we go from 6 minutes of work to 13 to 23 minutes of work. That’s an overload. That’s an injury waiting to happen.

So don’t stress. We’ll be race-ready in just a couple weeks.

But we’re not there yet.

How can I possibly lose these stupid extra pounds and keep training hard?

This is how: eat fewer calories than you burn.

I’m serious. if you’re running and not losing weight, then stop kidding yourself. You need to eat less.

BUT … You need to eat less without destroying your ability to recover from training and to emerge stronger from your hard workouts.

So here’s my #1 tip: eat 300-600 calories of almost-pure carbohydrates within 15 minutes of finishing your workout, and eat even more than that if you can.

Your trained body can store a few hundred calories of muscle glycogen in your legs. Muscle glycogen is an immediate energy reserve that puts the pop in our legs when we’re out for our runs, especially our bouts of “hard” training. when we consume carbohydrates immediately after a run, we replenish used muscle glycogen at 200-300% the rate that we normally would. This allows us to feel fresh the next time we head out the door! and it’s especially important when we’re lowering our other energy reserves by restricting our diet.

Here’s my #2 tip: step on a scale every day.

Look, we’re trying to lose weight. so we can’t be afraid of the scale. It’ll tell us the truth. It’ll let us know whether we can get away with that muffin before bed. Or that double portion of pasta for dinner. Or those refreshing energy drinks we power from sunup to sundown.

Also, weigh yourself in the morning – and keep it consistent. if you visit the bathroom first thing, weigh yourself after that. and remember that even controlling for time of day, the bathroom, etc., weight will vary from day-to-day based on things like dehydration, salt intake, etc. so don’t freak out if your weight suddenly jumps a pound and drops two. like scores in figure skating at the Olympics, throw out the best and worst marks of the week.

And persevere. You can’t diet three or four days a week. your body’s too smart for that and will simply adjust your metabolism in an attempt to maintain your “set” weight (the weight at which it’s become comfortable).

Oh, and drink plenty of fluids. no dice losing water weight and pretending it’s actual weight. Don’t be one of those doofuses who don heavy sweats with hoods to jog on the hottest day of the year.

Okay, now on to this week’s training …

Overall Volume:
Our overall intensity this week should be roughly equivalent to last week, so this would be a good time to tack on 5-10% more endurance volume – either by increasing distance or time, whichever you use to determine your weekly volume (I use neither, just adding to or subtracting from my runs). if your long run isn’t much longer than your medium runs, then that’s a good place to start. Our goal is for the long run to be a good 1-1/2 times the length of our normal run. so if you’re running 60 minutes for a normal distance run, you’ll want to get near 90. if your long run is already where you want it, then add an easy recovery run. Or make a mild increase in your normal run.

Tuesday Workout:
5 x 4 minutes at 5K/10K effort
Recovery Interval: 3 minutes easy jogging
Hint: Just like last week, keep these at 5K to 10K effort. Do not increase your effort per rep over last week’s workout! We’re simply adding more minutes to our total, building upon that stronger muscle we received as a reward for last week’s session. and next week won’t be repetitions, so we want to make sure to stay within ourselves, so that we’ll be ready for what’s to come.

Friday Workout:

Your choice of two workouts …

PREFERRED WORKOUT:
Technique Drills – 1 x Skipping, High Skipping, Marching, Bounding, Foot Shuffles, and Butt Kicks
*If you did these drills last time, you’re set; just repeat (except for bounding, which is a new addition). if you skipped drills and aren’t sure how to do them, visit the video on drills I did for Running Times right HERE.
Before and after: As noted in the video, these drills should be preceded by a full competition warm-up, and work best when followed by a good 20-40 minutes of easy running.

ALTERNATE WORKOUT (if you can’t or won’t do the drills):
Short Hill Repeats – 6-10 x 8-10 seconds of steep hill striding (90-95% effort)
Recovery Interval – 2-3 minutes (walk down hill, wait until 2-3 minutes has passed)

Train with your Humble Blogger

Unfortunately, your Humble Blogger has to travel for work this week, and will miss the Tuesday session. But I strongly suggest that you consider doing that workout at Lacy Park in San Marino anyway. Click here for a map showing Lacy Park’s location. Given that the park closes at sunset, the workout should begin at 4:30 (15 minutes later than before, since the sun is setting later). getting in the habit of running in Lacy (or maintaining that habit if you’ve been meeting me there) is important for future training. when we make a weekly training session part of our routine, it becomes automatic. As for Friday, I’ll be back and ready to drill!

Younger Legs for Older Runners: Carlsbad 5000 Training Program …