Keeping Easy Days Easy

How Do Easy Runs Help You Race Faster (and what exactly your easy pace should be)

A common question, and one of the more difficult concepts of training to comprehend, is “how do easy runs help me race faster”.

As an example, if you want to run a marathon at 9 minutes-per-mile, how does running five to eight miles easy, or even your entire long run, at 10:30 pace accomplish this? Wouldn’t running all your miles as close to 9 minute-pace as possible make more sense?

Logically, it would make sense that pushing the pace of your easy days as close to race pace as possible would help you get fitter quicker and ultimately run faster.  After all, the harder you work the better you get, right?

Yet, most good coaches will tell you to run slow on your easy days. Moreover, easy runs are likely to make up 50-75% of your weekly mileage.

At RunnersConnect, almost all our new team members ask at some point “why are my easy days so slow” or “how am I supposed to run fast if I am running easy all the time”

The answer to these questions lies in what coaches call the aerobic system.

The aerobic system, and thus aerobic development, is the one true secret to training and it’s the key to unlocking your potential.

In this article, we’re going to examine why the aerobic system is so important, what the aerobic system is, and how to target it in training.

Why is aerobic development important?

The first step to understanding just how important the aerobic system is to distance running is to identify the percentage of energy contribution the aerobic system provides for races 5k and longer.

As you can see in this chart, even for a “short” event like the mile, over 80% of the energy required to run the race is produced via aerobic metabolism.

Looking at the research and the scientific data, we now know that the aerobic system is extremely important to distance running. But, what is the aerobic system and how does developing it help you run faster (if you’re always running so slow all the time).

What is “the aerobic system”?

First, we need to understand exactly what the aerobic system is and how it relates to easy running.

At the heart of aerobic training is the scientific fact that to exercise, your body needs to break down sugar and convert it to glycogen so it can be used as energy or fuel.

In the presence of adequate oxygen, the body utilizes the aerobic system, also known as aerobic glycolysis, to power continuous running. In the aerobic system energy ATP is produced through Pyruvic Acid and Lipid/Protein fragments entering the Kreb Cycle and the Electron Transport Cycle.

Simply speaking, during aerobic respiration, you breathe in, the body efficiently uses all the oxygen it needs to power the muscles, and you exhale.When you are “running aerobically” (or running easy), your muscles have enough oxygen to produce all the energy they need to perform.

Therefore, improving your capacity to transport and efficiently utilize available oxygen to produce energy will enable you to race faster since this makes up 85-99% of the energy needed to race.

Since running easy is aerobic development there’s no better way to train the aerobic system.

Now that we understand what aerobic running is we can examine the specific physiological adaptions that occur when you develop the aerobic system.

Benefit 1: Capillary development

Capillaries are the smallest of the body’s blood vessels and they help deliver oxygen and nutrients to the muscle tissues while shuttling waste products out. The greater the number of capillaries you have surrounding each muscle fiber, the faster you can transport oxygen and carbohydrate into your muscles.

Aerobic training (easy running) increases the number of capillaries per muscle fiber, thus improving how efficiently you can deliver oxygen and fuel to your working muscles and how quickly they can clear waste products.

Benefit 2: Increase myoglobin content of muscle fibers

Myoglobin is a special protein in your muscles that binds the oxygen that enters the muscle fiber. When oxygen becomes limited during exercise, myoglobin releases the oxygen to the mitochondria to produce more energy.

Simply speaking, the more myoglobin you have in your muscle fibers, the more oxygen you can sequester to the muscle under aerobic duress – like during a race.

Aerobic training increases the myoglobin content of your muscle fibers.

Benefit 3: Mitochondria development

Mitochondria are microscopic organelle found in your muscles cells that contribute to the production of ATP (energy). In the presence of oxygen, mitochondria breakdown carbohydrate, fat, and protein into usable energy.

Therefore, the more mitochondria you have, and the greater their density, the more energy you can generate during exercise, which will enable you to run faster and longer.

Aerobic training increases both the number and the size of the mitochondria in your muscle fibers.

There are a few other physiological benefits to aerobic training, but that discussion gets a little too scientific and likely only interesting to biology majors.

Suffice it to say that aerobic development is the single most important factor to long-term development.

Sure, track workouts, VO2max sessions, and tempo runs will increase your fitness and are still important to racing faster. However, nothing will consistently help you improve continuously like developing the aerobic system.

Why doesn’t running faster on easy days develop the aerobic more rapidly?

Now, the million dollar question: Won’t running faster and pushing harder on your runs develop the aerobic system more rapidly?

Nope.

Not only will running faster result in diminished aerobic development, but it increases the chances of injury and overtraining. Double whammy.

This is the single biggest mistake runners of all experience levels make in their training.

Since I firmly believe that understanding the “why” of training is critical to executing workouts and training correctly, and I don’t expect you to take my word for it, let’s look at why this is.

Optimal aerobic development pace

Scientific research as been able to identify exactly how the aerobic system responds and adapts to certain training paces. Physiologically, we know:

·         Capillary development appears to peak at between 60 and 75 percent of 5k pace.

·         Research has shown that maximum stimulation of myoglobin in Type I muscle fiber occurs at about 63-77 percent of VO2max. 63-77 percent of VO2max is about 55-75 percent of 5k pace.

·         Two researchers, Holloszy (1967) and Dudley (1982) published some of the defining research on optimal distance and pace for mitochondrial development. In short, Holloszy found that maximum mitochondrial development when running at 50-75 percent of V02max. Likewise, Dudley found that the best strategy for slow-twitch, mitochondria enhancement was running for 90 minutes per outing at 70 to 75 per cent V02 max.

I know that’s a lot of statistics and numbers, so if you’re not as analytically inclined as I pretend to be, here is a neat chart to sum up the research:

The body of evidence is clear: your optimal easy run pace for aerobic development is between 55 and 75 percent of your 5k pace, with the average pace being about 65 percent.

It’s also evident from this research that running faster than 75% of your 5k pace on your long run doesn’t provide a lot of additional physiological benefit.

In fact, the research indicates that it would be just as advantageous to run slower as it would be to run faster. 50-55 percent of 5k pace is pretty easy, but the research clearly demonstrates that it still provides near optimal physiological aerobic adaptation.

Overtraining and Injury

Ok, so we can clearly see from research that running faster isn’t going to develop your aerobic system more rapidly. But, what’s the harm in running faster on those days you feel good? Why do coaches always harp on you to slow down?

The faster you run on your easy days, the more stress you place on the muscles, tendons, ligaments in bones. For example, you may be able to head out the door and hammer out an easy day and feel fine with your breathing, but your hips might not be strong enough yet to handle the pace or the consecutive days of faster running and, as a result, your IT band becomes inflamed.

In addition to aerobic development, easy days can function as active recovery from your hard workouts – but not if you run them too fast.

After a hard workout, your muscles will have micro-tears from the forceful contractions which happen at fast speeds. These micro-tears cause muscle soreness, and make training the day after a hard workout difficult. The body heals these small micro-tears through the circulatory system, which delivers the oxygen and nutrients to the muscles that need repair. Easy running delivers oxygen and nutrients directly to the muscles used during running. When running easy enough, the stress and micro tears that result from running are virtually non-existent, so the recovery outweighs the slight muscle damage.

The reason these two realities are so difficult to understand is that they don’t occur instantaneously. Meaning, you don’t run slightly too fast one day and then immediately get hurt. The stress and fatigue compounds, so it’s difficult to attribute it to one run.

Hopefully, this in-depth and scientific look at the aerobic system, easy runs, and optimal pacing has opened to your eyes to why easy running is critical to long-term success and why running too fast is doubly detrimental to your progress.

Train Smarter Not Harder

The 4 Lessons My Coach Tried to Teach Me (But I just Wouldn’t Listen)

A few weeks ago I was invited back to college to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of our cross country team’s first ever Ivy League Championship. It was awesome to reconnect with old teammates and reminisce about our college training days.

At one point we all gathered around our former coach and recollected our memorable performances and reflected on our stupid training mistakes.

Interestingly, not one of us said I wish we had trained harder. But we all wished we had trained smarter.

Then my coach something interesting that really hit home. “I tried to tell you guys and you just wouldn’t listen. I’d already made these same mistakes and tried to make sure you didn’t repeat them.” For context, my college coach was John Gregorek, a two-time Olympian and 3:51 miler.

At first I thought not taking advantage of my coach’s wisdom was a result of still being in my college rebellious years. But as I reflected further, I realized it’s the same issue I often encounter with the runners I coach.

I now find myself in John’s shoes, trying to tell the athletes I coach, “I’ve been there and I’ve done that”.

Sometimes they listen, sometimes they don’t.

In hopes that you can learn from some of my experiences, here’s what I would change if I could go back in time and avoid some of my biggest training mistakes.

Don’t be a slave to mileage

Like many runners, I was a slave to the numbers in my training log. I was more focused on increasing miles per week and recording impressive workouts than I was with the outcome of that training – racing well.

The focus and my metrics were completely backwards.

I can remember waking up the day after hard races and being so sore I could barely walk down the stairs. The smart decision would have been to hit the pool or bike for an easy cross training session to deliver blood, oxygen and nutrients to my damaged muscles and then some stretching, massage and icing. Instead, I laced up the shoes and put in 10 miles. God forbid I come up 10 miles short on my weekly mileage.

Missing one easy 10-miler would have done absolutely nothing to deter my fitness. But, it would have allowed me to recover faster and return to quality miles sooner.

The same theory applies to trying to run through injuries. When I felt my achilles tug or my calf start to spasm, rather than worrying about how my mileage was going to look for that week and trying to run through it, I should have immediately backed off and focused onprehab and rehab. As a result, rather than missing an entire week or two of training, which was always the result, I would have missed a day or two and been back to quality training without the slightest hiccup in fitness.

Adhere to the purpose of workouts

I wanted every training day to be faster. If my coach assigned me a tempo run, I was disappointed if I didn’t run faster than scheduled.

In the days before GPS watches, we ran the same courses every day and I had every run recorded (and checkpoints along the way) to compare to previous days. A good day was running faster than I ever had before.

As a result, I wasn’t getting the full value from workouts (a threshold run is not targeting your threshold if it’s at race pace) and I wasn’t utilizing easy days as intended (to recover and build aerobic endurance).

It was wasted training.

In today’s training environment with apps, watches and training platforms designed to measure and record every waking (and sleeping) data point, the temptation to always want to beat previous runs is more difficult to ignore than ever.

Unfortunately, using tracking devices to be faster in training every day is backwards. Instead, we should use that data to adhere to the purpose of each run to extract maximum value from that session.

Rather than being excited you ran your fastest easy day ever, use your watch to slow yourself down when you see the pace creeping faster. Instead of seeing if you can beat your previous tempo run pace, challenge yourself to be more consistent with your splits and spend more time in your threshold zone.

Do the right type of strength work

I was notorious for spending hours in the gym after training runs. Unfortunately, most of that time was wasted doing the wrong type of strength work.

Not only was I just making myself more tired than I needed to be without any direct return on investment to my racing fitness, but I was neglecting work I could have been doing to make me faster and healthier.

• I should have traded those useless, light weight and high rep shoulder shrugs forrunning-specific plyometrics designed to develop explosive power and speed (a major weakness).

• Rather than performing ineffective hamstring curls or countless reps on the adductor machine (both have been proven to have no value to runners), I should have focused on fixing my specific weaknesses and form flaws (in my case I have a glute that doesn’t fire correctly, which results in a limp) with targeted exercises (like this one for hip extension).

Not only would I have avoided a lot of wasted time in the gym, I would have run faster.

Roll with the punches

You’re going to have bad days – it’s an unavoidable part of training. Olympians, World Champions and World Record holders have them too.

I, like many runners, let those bad days get me down and shake my confidence. Looking back at my old training logs you’d think I was suffering from severe depression. Having a bad workout on Friday would ruin my entire weekend.

Not only is this not productive from a training standpoint, it’s not a healthy or fun way to approach running.

Relaxing about my training would have made me less nervous at races and allowed me to enjoy the process more. Just as important, it would have prevented negative thoughts from creeping in my head and causing ruts in training and racing when I couldn’t get positive momentum going.

Heed the lessons I should have learned from my coach and you can avoid these simple, yet significant mistakes with your own training.

Now, if I could only finish my plans on that flux capacitor…..

Article courtesy of runnersconnect.com blog. 

Boston Training Preparation

With CU Racing Team runners Sarah Dowd, Tom Gelsthorpe, and Marty Williams all making the trip to Boston this year this article from RunnersConnect.net (Here) has good advice on preparation for the marathon. Unfortunately, Central Illinois lacks some good options for long hills but it is important to take advantage of the resources we do have.

Embrace The Grind

Check out this short documentary peeking into the day in day out grind of a professional runner. 

<iframe src="//player.vimeo.com/video/55762728" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/55762728">PREVAIL - PORTRAIT OF A PROFESSIONAL RUNNER</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/mrtosh1980">Bryan Tosh</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Training To Kick

The following video is from the 2013 World Championships Women's 400m race in Moscow. Flotrack voted this kick from Christine Ohuruogu at the best kick of 2013. The kick is the most exciting part of any race, it's what some runner dream of. Some people think kicking is a statement of will and the runner with more will can always find a way to win the race. However, kicking is something that needs to be planned for and trained. By training your body to kick speeding up at the end of a race will come natural any your body will be ready. Below are videos of a great kick to get you pumped up and then training advice on how to develop a kick for your next race.



Everyone hopes to have a kick at the end of a race, however, many times is it simply not possible for us to kick due to the way we train. Common training of steady training runs or runs that get slower at the end due to fatigue set us up to run the same way in a race. Running Times and Steve Magness have some brilliant posts about how to tailor your training to develop a kick at any distance. Below is the article from Running Times. Check out what Steve Magness has to say for a more scientific explanation.
RW: http://www.runnersworld.com/race-training/a-lethal-kick
SM: http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2011/10/training-to-kick.html

A Lethal Kick

You don't need to be born fast to have finishing power. Here's how to develop it.

By

Caitlin Chock

Published

July 24, 2013

Galen Rupp unleashes a strong finishing kick in the U.S. Olympic trials 5,000m to beat rival Bernard Lagat.

Galen Rupp relied on endurance to keep himself in contention running at Beijing, but it was his newly refined ability to finish with power that saw him winning an Olympic medal four years later in London. His surge past two Africans in the closing meters was a powerful display of why distance runners need finishing speed -- and have to train for it.

Years prior, Alberto Salazar made a bold statement to Lance Walker, director of performance at the Michael Johnson Performance Center, regarding the East African champions dominating world track. "These guys are elite sprinters having to hold that speed for longer," Salazar said to him. "Let's teach [Rupp] some of the things that make sprinters fast and work that into his training." These words spurred a shift in how Walker, previously renowned for his work with sprinters, thought of distance running. They got to work.

Now, Walker says, when Rupp goes into the final stretch, he has more metabolism supporting the kick because he has learned to be more efficient over the span of the entire race. "His body understands how to kick," Walker says. "He's got good speed-endurance now, and then he's got more top-end stuff."

IT'S NOT ALL GENETICS

Many runners fall under the misconception that you're either born a kicker or not. But don't sell yourself short just yet. "People think they are limited by their genetics, but that stuff can be manipulated to a degree," says Steve Magness, track coach at the University of Houston and coach of elite runners like Sara Hall. "Yes, you are never going to be a sprinter, but you can subtly shift fiber types."

Morgan Gonzales, a member of the Saucony Hurricane Team, recently started focusing on her kick. In her 2013 season-opener 1500m race, she slashed 9 seconds off her PR, bringing it down to 4:38. "Improving my speed and power felt like unlocking something that I already had inside of me; I just had not trained or learned to use those skills before," Gonzales says. After a year of working this new skill set, Gonzales has seen a 5-second improvement in her last 200m in workouts and races. "Knowing that I have the speed for a good start and a strong kick has completely changed my race plan."

An athlete's finishing power ultimately decides between a win or a loss. Having the ability to make a move late in the race creates the separation between athletes that often can't be overcome, says Sean Coster, head coach for the Nike employees in Portland and the coaching service Complete Running. Coster has experience with athletes at every level, including high school, masters, recreational runners and elites like 8:00 3,000m runner Michael Nicks.

SPEED VS. FINISHING POWER

Coster says speed is different from finishing power. True top speed can only be sustained for 60m–80m by most runners, he says. Unless you're racing the 100m, a much more viable asset is the ability to close hard on already tired legs. This finishing power also takes a unique kind of development.

Magness agrees. "If we took Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele and had them jog 75-second laps for a mile and then kick an all-out 400, Bekele would win," he says. "Even though Bolt would have way more speed and 75-second pace is 'slow,' he's dipping into that speed and activating muscle fibers and using those resources to stay at that pace."

Distance runners need to improve their base speed enough to make the pace of longer races feel somewhat easier, but then be able to dip into that speed reserve when it comes time to power home.

KICK-STARTING YOUR KICK

Developing that second reserve takes a two-pronged attack: First, training the body to recruit as many fibers as possible, then learning to utilize that recruitment when fatigued.

Building muscle recruitment, and thus pure speed, starts with power-based workouts and explosive moves like all-out sprints of 20m–100m, hill blasts (short, steep hills approximately 25m long), and plyometrics. This kind of work is taxing muscularly and neuromuscularly -- it needs to be done in a refreshed state at the beginning of the workout and with full recoveries between each repeat. This isn't aerobic conditioning; you shouldn't be breathing hard before starting another sprint. Aim for one day a week dedicated solely to speed development.

A plyometric routine can be done two or three times a week, after one of your hard workouts but not on your recovery day. You want to keep everything hard on one day so you can have true recovery days. Two of Walker's top picks for runners are single-leg hops and the split-squat jump. He's also a fan of what he calls "reactive-response plyometrics," aimed at reducing the foot's contact time with the ground; examples are dynamic A-skips and pogo jumps (see below).

Another exercise in the Nike Oregon Project athletes' routine is footwork ladders, which help condition their feet to fire at a more rapid rate. Employing the same philosophy as the reactive-response plyometrics, athletes move through an 11-rung ladder that is lying flat on the ground, to practice getting their feet tapping the ground and firing back off as fast as possible. Walker first has athletes run through the ladder landing one foot per box, then landing both feet in each box.

After pure speed is developed through these methods, then it's time to implement the strength, power and neuro-response times into workouts with the goal of mixing speed with fatigue-inducing elements.

"Muscle fiber recruitment drops as we get fatigued and then, at kick time, you pull upon all your reserves and increase fiber recruitment a bit," Magness says.

Magness uses these workouts to develop speed while inducing fatigue:

Quarters and Hills: Three sets of 4 × 400m at 3K pace with 3 × 80m hill sprints between sets

500s and Bounding: Repeat 500s with first 200m at 800m pace, straight to 100m of bounding -- exaggerated long strides, driving off the back leg and lifting the front knee as high as you can -- then 200m kick finish. "The bounding increases force requirement and thus fiber recruitment, and then you've got to use that during the final kick in," Magness says.

Coster's workouts focus on developing a gear faster than race pace. Athletes perform race-pace workouts for distances one or two events shorter than their goal race (e.g., marathoners aim for 10K race pace during 800m to 1-mile repeats). Similarly, spending a training season aimed at a race a step faster than your usual goal will improve your finishing kick. Coster's 5,000m runners focus on 1500m training for a period of time, either a full season or as a tuneup race before their primary goal 5,000m competition.

An advanced option is to combine strength and plyometrics with running in a circuit-style workout. Run 100m strides between sets of squats and lunges, for example. "Doing the strength exercises forces muscle recruitment, and then you learn to use it when running," Magness says.

PSYCHOLOGY OF A KICK

Experts like Magness agree that while the physiology of a fast finish is important, the psychology is equally criticial.

Athletes wanting to run faster toward the end of a race can make the mistake of trying to force a kick. This causes runners to tense up, change their gait and slow themselves down.

In order to run faster, try to relax. "Shake it out," says Magness. "One of the best things you can do is to just drop the arms, open up the hands, and shake them out for a second." The neck, shoulders and jaw are areas liable to harbor tension; take a deep, yawning breath with your mouth wide open and make sure your neck isn't craning forward. Keep your breathing controlled, don't let yourself overstride, and aim for faster turnover.

Instead of obsessing over times and splits, move your focus to sustaining the effort, remaining calm and controlled, and envisioning your legs pushing off the ground and exploding with each stride. Staying relaxed when fatigued is a skill that, just like any other, needs to be practiced. "The key is to get it so ingrained that you don't press when it's time to go," Magness says.

Many athletes find that after putting all the ingredients together, the kick comes naturally when the time comes to use it.

Rupp's Plyometrics
 

Here is a sample of the plyometric exercises that Lance Walker recommended for Galen Rupp to improve his kick. These should be done two or three times per week on a workout day. Start with one set and gradually build to two or three sets with full recovery between each. More isn't always better; emphasize good form. For most runners, two sets is enough.

Single-leg hops: Balance on your right leg and jump for distance while raising your left calf as close to your hamstring as possible. Think of it as an explosive butt-kicker combined with propelling yourself across as much distance as possible. Do one set of 10 hops for each leg.

Split-squat jump: Stand tall with feet together; jump up and bring your left leg forward and right leg back, landing with your feet split front and back. Lower into a deep squat, keeping your center of gravity in the torso, between your extended legs. Explode off the ground and switch leg positions midair so the squat is now led by the right leg. Repeat 10 times, alternating lead legs.

A-skip: In a continuous motion, drive your right leg up so the thigh is parallel with the ground while quickly bouncing on your left foot twice; this is done rhythmically and with the foot only clearing the ground a few inches. Bring the right leg down and drive the left leg up, bouncing twice on the right foot just as you did with the left and to the same rhythm. Repeat for 30 yards.

Pogo jump: With legs together and knees bent slightly, explode off the ground as high as you can, driving your lower legs and feet upward. Lift your arms overhead as you clear the ground. Lower your knees to a 90-degree bend as you hit, then spring back up into the next jump. Repeat 10 times.

Footwork ladders: Move through an 11-rung ladder laid on the ground, tapping one foot per square. Alternate the lead starting leg and repeat. After two sets, repeat while tapping down both feet in each square. Alternate lead leg and repeat two more sets.

Traits of Successful Runners

Traits of Successful Runners

Certain truths for runners of all abilities

By

Greg McMillan

Published

June 21, 2011

I'm a lucky coach. Through my online coaching, I get to work with beginning runners just coming off the couch as well as competitive runners aiming for age-group victories or trying to qualify for Boston. And through my work with our Olympic training team in Flagstaff, I get to help Olympians and world championship-level athletes.

What's most interesting is not the differences between the various groups of athletes but rather the similarities. Over my 20 years of coaching, I've noticed five key traits of successful distance runners. These traits apply to everyone -- beginners just joining the sport; competitive folks who balance work, family and other commitments with their running goals; and Olympic-level athletes.

1) Don't Dwell

Every long-time runner has experienced this phenomenon: week after week of great runs suddenly interrupted by one of the worst workouts in years, for no logical reason. I've found that the most successful athletes don't dwell on the bad days; instead, they're eager to move on to the next day's training or upcoming race. Successful runners know that bad days don't last and aren't a true indication of their fitness. Bad days are just a freak occurrence that must be tolerated on the path to your goals. Running is hard but fun, and that short statement should tell us that there will be good days and there will be bad days. Live through both. Neither lasts forever.

A personal example: I work with two outstanding athletes who took their fitness to new levels in 2009. One went on to win a national championship. The other never raced to his potential. The difference was in their outlook. The national champion endured a few bad workouts and races but let them slide. The underperformer also endured a few bad workouts and races but couldn't get past them. He was training with other athletes who were having great success. He was accomplishing workouts that he never dreamed he could do. He was recovering quickly and was not overtrained. But when we talked, his attitude was, "Yeah, but ..." We'd talk about the hundred great workouts he'd done but he'd follow that with, "Yeah, but that tempo run last month really went poorly. I don't know if I'm in great shape." Clearly, this "dweller" will never achieve what the national champion did, and it has nothing to do with training. It has to do with mindset.

2) Find Your Sweet Spot in Training

Successful training is about finding the balance in your stress/rest cycle. Training (and much of life) is stressful. It depletes your body's energy stores. It stresses your muscles, ligaments, tendons, and bones. In short, training tears down your body. With rest, however, your body builds back stronger than before. The trick is to find the training rhythm where your stress/rest cycle is in balance -- where you're having positive workout followed by positive workout, successful week followed by successful week. In fact, if we're smart (and this is what I do as a coach), we set up the training from the outset to be positive.

This can be tricky due to the unpredictability of our other life stresses (work, family, etc.), but if you find a training routine where nearly every one of your workouts and races is positive then you're in balance. If you find that you frequently have poor/unpredictable workouts or races, or are often injured, then your training (or life) stress is too great. You are under-recovering and should add a bit more recovery to your plan. Progress things as your body adapts but think constantly about balance so that you can have successful training. Successful workouts lead to greater and greater motivation, which leads to better and better racing.

3) Focus on Consistency

Once you find your sweet spot, you can train consistently week after week, month after month and year after year. This "stacking" of successful training week on top of successful training week will lead you to your full potential. Injuries and illness from overtraining cut short your improvement so structure your training with the long-term in mind.

We have a saying in our Olympic training team that you must train consistently for two straight years -- no unscheduled interruptions due to injury or illness -- to even begin to see how good you can be. This reality applies to all of us. A year of consistent running is more beneficial than a few stellar weeks of training.

4) Be Tenacious

Successful runners are tenacious (some of our loved ones would even say stubborn). Success is about keeping on keeping on. Put one foot in front of the other for long enough and the finish line will come. You have the ability to go to greater heights than you ever dreamed of -- just by sticking with it. A little stubbornness can be a great attribute when you're in the middle miles of a marathon. Foster tenaciousness in small ways every day.

5) Build Your Confidence Constantly

The most important key to success is confidence. You know the workouts and training rhythm that give you confidence. It's a good idea to include these types of training throughout your year to keep you motivated. It's also a good idea to put confidence-building workouts close to your key races. The last six weeks before a key race like a marathon should include all your favorite, confidence-building workouts. Don't just follow a training plan because that's what's "accepted wisdom." Instead, tinker with your training and add as well as omit workouts that just don't work for you.

Greg McMillan is an exercise physiologist and USATF-certified coach who helps runners via his website mcmillanrunning.com.

Jim Acklin's recommended warm-up routine for optimum racing

 A One Hour Warm-up Routine for 5k and 10k Racing
by Jim Acklin

Athletes that develop a pre-race routine usually benefit from more consistent results.  What follows is a warm-up routine that should prove beneficial to most runners.  You will need to find out what works best for you and make modifications accordingly.  Once you find a routine that works, stick to it.

First 15 minutes                               

Ideally, you have arrived at least one hour prior to race time.  Upon arrival, you will want to register and pick up your packet.  This is also the time to visit the bathroom—if you are well hydrated, you may have to take care of that order of business first.  Once you have your bib number, pin it on your jersey and get ready for phase two.

Second 15 minutes         

At this point, you will want to start a slow two mile jog.  At the end of your jog, run the last 400 hundred meters at or slightly faster than your planned race pace.  The fast 400 will open up your circulatory and respiratory systems and will help get your body ready for the efforts associated with racing.

Third 15 minutes

When finished with the two mile run, you will want to go through your stretching routine.  As you stretch, it will help to look inward in order to get your mind ready for the efforts associated with racing.  Accept the fact that a hard effort will be uncomfortable and mentally rehearse what you will do to deal with the pain of oxygen debt when it inevitably comes.                 

Fourth 15 minutes          

In the final 15 minutes, you will want to change into your racing flats.  This is also a chance to make one last bathroom stop.  Finally, about five minutes prior to the start, you should go to the line and run at least five or six 50 meter stride-outs at a pace faster than expected race pace.  The stride-outs will elevate your heart rate and get your body ready to race.

Other Considerations

·         All runners who race should invest in a pair of racing flats—not only are they lighter, but the simple act of lacing them up before a race helps let your mind know that you are getting ready for something special—not just another run, but a race.

·         During your warm-up, you will want to continue to take on fluids—this is especially important when the weather is hot.

·         With cold weather, it is important to keep your core temperature up—your warm-up should be active enough that you come to the line with a light sweat.

·         In bigger races with more competitors, the officials will bring you to the line sooner—this will necessitate starting your warm-up routine sooner.

·         In longer races (half marathon and marathon, for example), the amount that you jog pre-race can be reduced due to the slower pace of the race.

Realizing Potential

Realizing Potential

We are approaching the 1 year anniversary of the creation of CU Racing Team. I think most members have been satisfied with the progress and impact CURT has had on the community and members in it's first year. Many of our members have PRed at a variety of distances and are running faster and more consistently than ever before. This is something we should all be very proud of. We have successfully motivated, trained and educated each other. However, the longevity and impact of this team must lie in the future. Changing Champaign-Urbana's attitude/behavior in regards to running, influencing and educating youth, and providing positive role models for runners in our community need to be on the mind of our members going into year number 2. CU Racing Team will be a more organized team with more to offer our community in 2014. Furman Elite is a team out of Greenville South Carolina that is drawing runners to its community and changing its community for the better. This year they qualified their first runner for the World Championship team that competed at Moscow. I think all of our members can take notes and strive to make a bigger and longer lasting impact on our community in 2014.  Check out this clip from Furman Elite. I encourage people to leave comments and act on ideas they have to influence others.

Consistent Training Pays Off For CU Racing Team Members

CU Racing Team Cleaning Up at RRCA Championships

RRCA Illinois 5k Championships

I think it's important to bring up that money has been flowing into CURT members pockets as of late. 

First, missing her PR by a mere 23 seconds (SJO 5k 2013), Sarah Lovell ran a phenomenal race at the tight, rough, and hilly Miles for Meso 5k on July 4th in Alton, IL. Sarah took home THE FEMALE MASTERS CHAMPIONSHIP along with 8th overall. An incredible $10,000 was handed out top finishing runners that included Africans and US elite. Sarah took home some of that cash. Below are pictures from the race and results. Sorry for the small results image. I couldn't get it any larger.

The evidence!

Female Masters Champion. Bow Down!

Smokin' the Runnababez.

 Full Results Here

RRCA Illinois XC Championships

Ron and Brandon took 1,2 in the Navy ROTC Illinois XC Championships. Times were less than impressive but each took home some sweet prizes. They celebrated with a nice dinner and beverage at Crane Alley with Jim and Jeff. CU Racing team also earned money for Andy Eheart helping work race day festivities. CURT donated their earnings to the Navy ROTC Veterans Education Center that will go to helping wounded servicemen graduate from University of Illinois. Thanks to Andy. And a big thanks to the Illinois Navy ROTC and Steve Ostwinkle for putting this race on and raising money for a great cause.

Veterans Education Center

Neck and Neck over the hill the first time. Ron would pull away for a sizable victory.

So You Say You Want to Get Faster...It is a mindset and lifestyle.

Adopting an attitude that you want to become a better runner is the first step to improvement. Do something today to help you be a stronger runner tomorrow. 

Training Smarter and Enjoying Running

Although I love to read or talk about anything related to running, I think running is something that is often over-complicated. This document contains many powerful but simple concepts for coaches and athletes to keep in mind. Staying injury free, running consistently, and enjoying your training and racing are all keys to happy running. As everyone knows, happy running is good running.