Longer or Faster? Part 2

So do you increase the pace of the long run or is it more beneficial to increase the distance? It’s a false dichotomy - it is not an “either, or” it is a “both, and”.

A competency in expressing potential for a given output (a race distance) is the indirect product of competency (your durability of fitness) on either side of that output. So as an example your 1500m potential is the product of your 800m and 3000m potential put together. Potential lower down the curve must be supported by potential higher up the curve and vice versa. [Max Frankel - Endurance Coach, Boulder Co.]

Think of your maximal paces over different durations or distances as a power curve. So let’s look at indicative points on that curve for someone targeting a 2:55 marathon:

• 1000m 3:03.2 (3:03/km)

• 1500m 4:47.0 (3:11/km)

• 3000m 10:13.4 (3:24/km)

• 5km 17:58 (3:35/km)

• 10km 37:18 (3:43/km)

• 1/2 Marathon 1:23:09 (3:56/km)

• 30km 2:01:29 (4:02/km)

• Marathon 2:55:00 (4:09/km)

• 50km 3:32:17 (4:14/km)

• 50 Miles 6:28:16 (4:49/km)

• 100km 8:31:33 (5:06/km)

• 100 Miles 16:50:25 (6:16/km)

Taken from the McMillan Running Calculator

Taking me as an example, I’ve hit those marks from 5000m and faster, but I have never hit the marks 10000m and slower. So if I want to run a 2:55 marathon I’ll need to be able to hit 37m18s for 10K. To do this I need to focus on fitness durability at ½ Marathon pace and maintaining speed at 5000m. If I hit that, then I work down the curve preserving capacity at the higher points. Eventually getting into a specific marathon block where I might alternate longer easier runs with shorter target marathon pace runs every other weekend.

It’s important to get to 60 minutes to get some of these benefits we’ve talked about. Then when we go to 90 minutes some other benefits kick in. Then between 90 mins and 2 hours, some other depletion effects kick in. But the key takeaway is that we are getting most of the central adaptive aerobic benefit from the first 90 minutes of the long run. 

So here is the key question. Would doing a 2 1⁄2 hour long run every Sunday at 100km power (or slower) be the best bang for my training time at twelve months out from my target race? The answer is probably no.

Yes - you need to get the time on your feet to get to a point where you can go long enough to benefit, and yes - you need to be able to comfortably cover a distance before you can qualify it with intensity. But that is a redundant question if your accumulated weekly volume of easy running is sufficient and you’ve proved you can run long when you need to.

This winter I’ll be reassessing my performances at the higher end of my power curve and working towards the specificity of marathon training over many months, whilst endeavoring to preserve this speed. The alternative approach of devoting a large amount of precious training time to the other end of the power curve is just training general fitness and hoping for the best.

Another major argument for developing speed first is your running economy. If you look at studies on elite (international) middle and long-distance runners. What is extremely interesting is these studies show that the running economy of 800-meter runners (and to some extent 1500-meter runners) is better than that of 5000-meter runners at both 5000-meter and 10000-meter speeds (given int. class speed). This gives you an indication of what kind of work improves running economy - speed work! That is speeds >2000m race pace right down to full-on sprints. The findings showed that this kind of focused speed-work can give a 6% improvement in your running economy. 

A six percent increase in running economy is a huge gain for someone planning to do a solid marathon performance. Much more than a pair of super shoes. If your 10km times predict faster marathons that you have achieved, perhaps it is running economy rather than aerobic fitness that has stopped you in the past.

Another key component of my approach is controlled interval-based threshold work, currently popularized as the Norwegian Model. The origins go back to Marius Bakken (a 13:06 5000m runner) who in turn was influenced by pioneers like Arthur Lydiard and Peter Coe who incorporated multi stimulus training with their athletes. Bakken drew from these influences and his personal experiences of training with East African runners, combining them with modern scientific understanding to create his approach.

One of Bakken’s key principles was that around 30% of total mileage should provide threshold stimulus; this is best done at around 0.5 mmol/l  below LT2/AnT or approx. 10 beats below Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR) working up to 3-4 below at the end of the session. This approach was a departure from the then standard U.S. more polarized practice of relying heavily on VO2 max workouts and focusing on mono-intensity long runs.

Instead, Bakken and later the Ingebrigtsens focused on frequent, controlled threshold work. The key innovation was to avoid running right at the lactate threshold line and instead stay safely below it. This approach reduced breakdown and allowed for more frequent high-quality training.

Rather than the dominance of the long run; regular workouts with some controlled Z3 threshold stimulus become the focus with real speed work Z6 & Z7 (30m-150m) done every 10 days during the training season. This is complemented by a high volume of easy running or cross-training in Z1 & Z2.

Bakken - “Use Mr Coes book [Better Training for Distance Runners] for periodization and general fitness, but ‘ignore’ his very hard anaerobic work and lack of mileage (but notice that he wants a long distance runner to do 4-5 AT runs a week! [See the table on the page where the number of sessions at different speeds is shown]. Then read Lydiard and mix the two of them and you will have great training.”

Wasn’t it Einstein that said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different outcomes? To achieve something you've never had, you must do something you've never done!

In next week’s newsletter we will explore fat-max, fueling and cross-training modalities.