Coach Brian Grasky, trained under the Olympic Training Center biomechanists,  offers Run Analysis at the Tucson Endurance Performance Center

Written by:  Brian Grasky, Head Coach

October 8, 2010

Fitness Explained

There are multiple elements that go into the fitness required to successfully run 1.5 mile quickly.  These are endurance, muscular endurance, and muscular strength primarily.  Secondary elements are speed and force (power).  

If you think of these elements in the context of building a house, endurance is the house’s foundation.  This is the most important of all fitness elements.  Without a solid foundation the house will fall, resulting in injury, lack of results, or only short term gains.  Build endurance first so that the rest of your training can have a solid foundation on which to build.

Muscular endurance is what will allow you to maintain pace for the entire 1.5 miles.  The common misconception is that speed is required for this.  Speed is important for a 100m dash or to run from your boss, not for 1.5 miles.  Muscular endurance is the height of your walls.  Muscular strength is the thickness of the walls.  You can only build tall walls if they are thick.  The higher the roof, the faster your 1.5 miles.  

Speed and Force are the pitch and type of roof on the house.  The standing room inside the house is based on the height of the ceiling, not the height of the roof, so pure speed and pure power have only limiter usefulness unless you’re running under 5:30 miles or so.

Below I explain how to attack each of the fitness elements in your training.


So how do I get faster?

First, build endurance.  Do this by running slowly at a sustainable pace for longer and longer each week.  The pace should be one at which you can hold a conversation, albeit while breathing somewhat heavily.  Once a pace and distance becomes comfortable, increase the distance.  If you start out and all you can do is run/walk, increase the running time and decrease the walking time until you’re able to run for a mile straight.  (For example, run 100yds, walk 100yd 2-3 times a week for 2 weeks.  On week 3 run 150yds, walk 75.  On week 4 run 200yds, walk 50, etc.)  From here, increase slowly—about 10-15% each week—until you can run 1.5 miles.  Then 2 miles.  Then 2.5.  This may take time.  The important part of this is to continually stress your body more each week.  If you don’t squirm in your seat a bit, it’s not doing any good for your body.  

The common error here is the assumption that to run fast for 1.5 miles all you have to do is run 1.5 miles.  Over-distance endurance training is important to be able to improve your pace on the run.  Only once you can run longer slower, can run shorter faster.   

Once you can run 2-2.5 miles steady, your foundation is solid and it’s time to work on muscular endurance and muscular strength (ME/MS).  The primary session for ME/MS is a race pace session for short distances while decreasing rest over time.  My favorite is to run 400yds at your realistic 1.5 mile goal pace, then walk 200yds.  Repeat this for 3x 400s.  If you can’t get to 3 of these, either your endurance is not where it should be or your goal pace is too fast for your fitness level.  Do this workout 2x per week for 2 weeks.  Then on week 3 do 4x 400s with 200yds walk for 1 or 2 weeks.  Next is 5x 400 for 1-2 weeks, then 6x 400 so that you’re running the 1.5 miles at goal pace, but with 200yds rest between 400s.  Once here, begin to decrease the recovery walk.  Take 50yds off for 1-2 weeks, then another 50 so that you’re at 6x 400 run, 100 walk.  Now drop rest to 75yds, then 50yds.  Once you’re at 50yds walk, you’re ready to run the entire 1.5 miles at goal pace.   During this time you’re also maintaining your endurance running of longer than 1.5 miles 1-2 times each week.  

An alternate session is hill repeats.  These should be 20-60 second efforts up a moderate incline (4-6% grade) with a  recovery jog/walk back down.  Stat at 3-4 repeats, and build until you’re able to repeat this for 10 minutes.  This should be done as an alternate session, not as your primary session replacing the above track work.  


Soreness 101

Why am I sore?  Soreness is caused by one of three major things: 1) large rips or pulls of the muscle structure, 2) micro-tears in the muscle fibers, and 3) buildup of lactic acid in the muscle.  

Muscle tears and pulls are the result of over-doing it.  This is soreness that limits any activity.  The only thing you can do with this is rest, ice, elevation, and more rest.  Micro-tears are from the stress caused by training.  When muscles build back after micro-tears they build themselves stronger and larger, so soreness isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Lactic acid, the by product of anaerobic metabolism, and increases with higher intensity exercise.  This lactic acid buildup is what causes the “burning” in muscles during high intensity exercise, and can cause soreness after.  The best thing to do after a hard training session is to stretch and walk to cool down.  Stay active, and do some light activity the day after the training session.  

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is the peak of muscle soreness that is experienced 24-72 hours after exercise.  Although the exact cause of DOMS is not fully known, it can be caused by the regeneration of muscle or from lactic buildup and recycling.  Bottom line:  you’ll be most sore 24-72 hours after exercise so don’t freak out.  


Heart Rate (HR) Training

A lot of people ask me about heart rates and heart rate monitors, but heart rate training is not necessarily appropriate to succeed at the 1.5 mile run.  Finding accurate heart rate data requires a series of tests to find “anchor points.”  From these anchors, we set HR training zones to target each specific energy and endurance system.  Finding these points either requires an invasive blood lactate test or a 30 minute time trial at maximal effort, so until you’re able to run for 30 minutes hard, you’re better off training by feel and building endurance than worrying about heart rate.  

Run by the following effort levels:
    Level 1    Easy                  Easy; able to talk freely; might be a walk
    Level 2    Conversational    Able to talk, but breathing is noticeable 1-2 deep breaths in a sentence
    Level 3    Tempo               Harder to talk; 3-5 words before a deep breath
    Level 4    Hard                  Unable to talk; close to max effort
    Level 5    Max                   Max effort sprint


Equipment

Be sure you’re in the proper running shoes.  There are stability shoes, cushioned shoes, cushioned stability shoes, racing flats, lightweight trainers, and any combination of the above.  If you run in the wrong shoes you could be causing long term biomechanical problems or just increasing discomfort in your running.  The only true way to be sure you’re in the proper shoes is to have an expert look at your feet when you run.  Several running shoe stores in town have treadmills and video cameras set up specifically for this.  This service in free, so take the time to go to a running shoe store for a foot-strike analysis.  The running experts in the stores are also great references for running issues such as shin splints, hip soreness, etc, so get to know them.    

Basic Training Plan

The following is a suggested 16-week training plan.  This plan is built for someone able to run steady for 15-20 minutes.  If you’re only able to run/walk right now, repeat the first 4 weeks until you’re able to run the entire time.  Be sure to start early and repeat weeks as needed based on your progression.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
off	run 15 minutes steady level 2		run 15 minutes level 2	off or cross-train	run 20 minutes steady level 2
off	run 20 minutes steady level 2		run 15 minutes level 2	off or cross-train	run 25 minutes steady level 2
off	run 25 minutes steady level 2		run 20 minutes level 2	off or cross-train	run 30 minutes steady level 2
off	run 20 minutes steady level 2		run 20 minutes level 2	off or cross-train	run 25 minutes steady level 2
off	run 25 minutes steady level 2	3x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	3x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	3x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 35 minutes steady level 2	3x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk
off	run 25 minutes steady level 2	4x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	4x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	4x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 35 minutes steady level 2	4x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk
off	run 35 minutes steady level 2	5x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk	off or cross-train	hill repeats 10 minutes	run 40 minutes steady level 2	5x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk	off or cross-train	hill repeats 10 minutes	run 35 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/200yd walk
off	run 35 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/150yd walk	off or cross-train	hill repeats 15 minutes	run 40 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/150yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/100yd walk	off or cross-train	hill repeats 15 minutes	run 40 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/100yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/100yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 40 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/100yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/75yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 40 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/75yd walk
off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/50yd walk	off or cross-train	off	run 30 minutes steady level 2	6x 400yd tempo w/50yd walk
off	run 20 minutes steady level 2	4x 400yd tempo w/50yd walk	off or cross-train	off	test	celebrate!