I have been following athlete's carriers, coaches and read at least 50 articles a day and tons of books on training, not just running, but all sport training, for at least a decade. In addition to this I am really into long term health, longevity in athletic performance and sport health.
I can tell you that at the end of each book, each interview and each smart conversation, the conclusion is the same about how we should periodise our training in ideal situations.
- Train the body's aerobic system to the maximum possible
- As you approach race day, work towards specificity
- Taper off volume and frequency and keep the intensity as you approach race day
I mean what is more simple ? I heard a lot of interviews with trail and ultra runners, saying bitumen is boring, you can do interval training on the trails too and that track workouts has nothing to do with fitness for a trail runner*.
Once money will be on the stakes on trail running scenes, we will see Africans coming over with a lifelong fitness and aerobic base, destroying all the big names in current ultra trail running. I talk about running races, not races where you got to do rock climbing on exposed ridges and use chains and ropes for safety. Confidence, skill, technical abilities and fear management have nothing to do with real fitness ! It is part of a trail runner's credentials, but has still nothing to do with specific running fitness !!!
Once money will be on the stakes on trail running scenes, we will see Africans coming over with a lifelong fitness and aerobic base, destroying all the big names in current ultra trail running. I talk about running races, not races where you got to do rock climbing on exposed ridges and use chains and ropes for safety. Confidence, skill, technical abilities and fear management have nothing to do with real fitness ! It is part of a trail runner's credentials, but has still nothing to do with specific running fitness !!!
How can we build the best basic aerobic fitness ?
Keep the highest possible heart rate for the longest possible time, the most often possible ! This is it ! However, if we added health in to the picture, recovery and longevity in sport, low rates or the total lack of injuries, productivity outside of running, this will be a completely differently formulated answer.
Let's see: Keep the highest possible heart rate for the longest possible time, that let you improve "forever" !
This very usually coincides with the MAFFETONE approach, the MAF heart rate. A submaximal effort. Short and long MAF runs, MAF intervals, some sprints for a couple of months with some barefoot running. When you are ready, when the posterior chain, the connective tissues, the muscles and the fat burning system are ready, you can add speed, strength, power, agility and other skills.
(This is a training talk here and while lifestyle choices, like nutrition, hydration sleep and stress management are even more important than training itself, we keep it simple here and don't take those into account as possible negatives. They are all supposed to be great and health conscious)
(This is a training talk here and while lifestyle choices, like nutrition, hydration sleep and stress management are even more important than training itself, we keep it simple here and don't take those into account as possible negatives. They are all supposed to be great and health conscious)
To build this system, as we stated at the beginning of this paragraph, you got to keep the highest heart rate possible, for the longest periods of time. While staying healthy, strong and motivated.
While doing only MAF runs is a great training tool for building a strong base fitness, if you were running on hilly / mountainous terrain all the time exclusively, you never really get into that endurance zone, into that primal locked on mental presence, into that training stimuli what you would benefit from a non-stop flat or slightly rolling terrain, MAF heart rate workout.
(MAF HEART RATE: 180-AGE=MAF'MAX ; MAF'MAX-10=MAF'min ; example: 180 - 34 = 146 ; 146 - 10 = 136 ; MAF Training range 136bpm to 146bpm - For more info on this, read: the Big book of endurance trainign and racing - Dr. Phil Maffetone)
Let me further explain this. During a longer effort, around 30 minutes upwards, our concentration is really fragile. This doesn't mean that you are not focused or not present. It means that if you were locked on to a certain heart rate zone of 3 to 4 beats, the longer longer you run, your attention is more likely to digress from this ideal heart rate range. This is why, if you added technical terrain, steep downhills, rope and chain climbing and rhythm disturbing power-hiking, while you certainly sharpen other quality skills, following your MAF heart rate is nearly impossible.
(MAF HEART RATE: 180-AGE=MAF'MAX ; MAF'MAX-10=MAF'min ; example: 180 - 34 = 146 ; 146 - 10 = 136 ; MAF Training range 136bpm to 146bpm - For more info on this, read: the Big book of endurance trainign and racing - Dr. Phil Maffetone)
Let me further explain this. During a longer effort, around 30 minutes upwards, our concentration is really fragile. This doesn't mean that you are not focused or not present. It means that if you were locked on to a certain heart rate zone of 3 to 4 beats, the longer longer you run, your attention is more likely to digress from this ideal heart rate range. This is why, if you added technical terrain, steep downhills, rope and chain climbing and rhythm disturbing power-hiking, while you certainly sharpen other quality skills, following your MAF heart rate is nearly impossible.
How can you get into this engaged running profile ? By choosing even and evenly angled surfaces. So on some rolling hills, by running, the downhills hard, yes, you can keep your heart rate on the 180 minus your age level, but your stride has to change all the time, so as a workout it is great, as an every day training tool, not that bad, but not ideal.
What are these non damaging even surfaces ?
Flat fire roads, some paved roads (some !), athletic track, uphill road, treadmill ! Road running is great to improve the MAF system, however the pounding, what we can get away with is very limited, so I do not recommend running on paved surfaces all the time. Maybe once or twice a week on shorter occasions.
So here you go, we got back to our trail runner's approaches (repeated): *bitumen is boring, you can do interval training on the trails too and that track workouts has nothing to do with fitness for a trail runner.
- I can say that running on the track and getting in to those aerobic and anaerobic levels, will help you to push when it matters the most during races. Also the best way to improve, is to get somebody to push you, who is just slightly better than you. Last time I planned on doing 6 x 400, on 1:20 easy, to make the jambons turning with a bit higher frequency. I had a friend coming on by coincidence and we ran all of those on 1:13. No straining, no form collapsing, just doing it as natural. (You gotta know of course, if you were ready for this kind of sugar-snaps ! )
- I often feel like not running, cause I have only 35minutes, it is too hot, maybe just don't have enough motivation to go for a jog. I still can go on the track and put out a 4 x 1000m MAF interval session, what is not difficult at all, but fast for that given heart rate ! Practicing perfect stride and leg turnover most of the time is so good for general running health ! Running on slight uphill roads( to decrease impact ), can also let you have your MAFmax HR tuned in ! If you were lucky to have some long stretches of slightly angled road near you, you might have a long all MAF run for 2,5 to 3h every weekend (Depending what you were preparing for). Long MAF repetitions are also great !
- Treadmills are fantastic too ! Why ? Cause you can run barefoot on them and focus only on form and heart rate, keeping your chin up and posture aligned. Not ideal, for doing it all the time, but as warming up, as practice, as something you would do when it rains for weeks on end or it was freezing cold outside. I also like the fact that it works your muscles differently than normal running. It balances you out. No wonder that in the Salazar team, treadmill running is a part of normal daily training.
These are the best ways to build running fitness. Running your MAF base season on track, dirt-roads, treadmill and uphill pavement with some flat bitumen too, running your high end fitness cycles on track and road, just then add trail specificity and move to trail intervals, downhill running and power hiking. It is a long process, but worth taking the time, to bring that high end fitness to the trails and dominate those races.
You can see now, why weekend warriors cannot get into real race shape for a particular race. They mix everything all the time and anyways, running 3-4 times a week, cannot benefit your running at all. It can improve your health, longevity, body composition and general fitness and can make you a better runner than before, but when we talk about high performance, it is not doable.
I did not actually say, to abandon trail running during base, I said, focus should be on other stuff. So if you ran 9 times a week, what is 6 or 7 days of running with two or three doubles, you can still include 1 or two real trail runs every week, just to keep that rock hopping stride ready to be turned on anytime.
When running only 4 times a week, that is often a Tuesday / Thursday track workout, a medium Friday afternoon run on the concrete and a weekend, long trail run. This is not bad, except if you did the exact same thing all the time, all year around !
The other negative aspect of the weekend warriors is over racing. Very often paired up with under recovering before and after races. Or, recovering improperly, like doing zero runs and zero activities come race week.
Even if you did only 6 races a year, that would be 8 weeks of training in between them. Impossible to prepare to all. This is why more professional athletes use some shorter races, to fine-tune performance, to measure fitness, but they are not there to race out their guts like it was a world championship. It is built into their macrocycle. Runners doing 10+ races a year or some even double it up, cannot lead to long term performance increases. You are just racing week in / week out and never can get into a proper training cycle. We see very rarely if never, runners racing every second weekend and doing 100mi weekly distance over years and years.
As an example, at my old track club, we always cut out 2 to 4 weeks of training in the month of September. We might gone out for some mixed trail run / hikes, passed long days in the bike-saddle or went on sea swims, but there would be no more running than 0 to 25km a week.
In October we were building a solid base during 4 weeks with absolutely no interval training. Some accelerations and some light tempo runs, but we never went on the track at all.
Then in November we started a regular track training regiment till January. This was the time to start adding specificity and to do those trail intervals, those red-zone climbs and heavy backpack runs. When the first race approached in February/Mars, we were always in tip-top shape.From for a 50miler arrived around April/May/June and when long 100km+ races came into the scene around
(PS: I don't say, this cannot be approached differently. On the contrary. Different coaches, different philosophies, different periodisation. Athletes respond to those approaches differently too as genetics count. However nobody without a sound base, can get into solid high intensity training, period. This base can be 15 years of gymnastics or a lifetime of work in the coal mine, doesn't really matter. However the busy slightly overweight hunched over office-worm does not have it ! So if you were that, you might need 2 or more years of base training and you might even go lower than MAF !
If your only goals are highly technical over 20hours ultra marathons, you might never go on a track ever. But when want to do a 100miler a year, a couple of 50milers and might jump in to a mountain half or full marathon or a 10km local road race, you might consider those mile repeats and 30/30 sprintervals. Knowing what you really want, how and when you want it, is as crucial as building up your training program.)
You can see now, why weekend warriors cannot get into real race shape for a particular race. They mix everything all the time and anyways, running 3-4 times a week, cannot benefit your running at all. It can improve your health, longevity, body composition and general fitness and can make you a better runner than before, but when we talk about high performance, it is not doable.
I did not actually say, to abandon trail running during base, I said, focus should be on other stuff. So if you ran 9 times a week, what is 6 or 7 days of running with two or three doubles, you can still include 1 or two real trail runs every week, just to keep that rock hopping stride ready to be turned on anytime.
When running only 4 times a week, that is often a Tuesday / Thursday track workout, a medium Friday afternoon run on the concrete and a weekend, long trail run. This is not bad, except if you did the exact same thing all the time, all year around !
The other negative aspect of the weekend warriors is over racing. Very often paired up with under recovering before and after races. Or, recovering improperly, like doing zero runs and zero activities come race week.
Even if you did only 6 races a year, that would be 8 weeks of training in between them. Impossible to prepare to all. This is why more professional athletes use some shorter races, to fine-tune performance, to measure fitness, but they are not there to race out their guts like it was a world championship. It is built into their macrocycle. Runners doing 10+ races a year or some even double it up, cannot lead to long term performance increases. You are just racing week in / week out and never can get into a proper training cycle. We see very rarely if never, runners racing every second weekend and doing 100mi weekly distance over years and years.
As an example, at my old track club, we always cut out 2 to 4 weeks of training in the month of September. We might gone out for some mixed trail run / hikes, passed long days in the bike-saddle or went on sea swims, but there would be no more running than 0 to 25km a week.
In October we were building a solid base during 4 weeks with absolutely no interval training. Some accelerations and some light tempo runs, but we never went on the track at all.
Then in November we started a regular track training regiment till January. This was the time to start adding specificity and to do those trail intervals, those red-zone climbs and heavy backpack runs. When the first race approached in February/Mars, we were always in tip-top shape.From for a 50miler arrived around April/May/June and when long 100km+ races came into the scene around
- Build base first then high end fitness
- Add real specificity following correct periodization with higher and lower volume/intensity weeks
- Taper off by decreasing volume, intensity and volume of intensity, but keeping up frequency
- Race properly
(PS: I don't say, this cannot be approached differently. On the contrary. Different coaches, different philosophies, different periodisation. Athletes respond to those approaches differently too as genetics count. However nobody without a sound base, can get into solid high intensity training, period. This base can be 15 years of gymnastics or a lifetime of work in the coal mine, doesn't really matter. However the busy slightly overweight hunched over office-worm does not have it ! So if you were that, you might need 2 or more years of base training and you might even go lower than MAF !
If your only goals are highly technical over 20hours ultra marathons, you might never go on a track ever. But when want to do a 100miler a year, a couple of 50milers and might jump in to a mountain half or full marathon or a 10km local road race, you might consider those mile repeats and 30/30 sprintervals. Knowing what you really want, how and when you want it, is as crucial as building up your training program.)