We get greatest performance gains from polarized training (working the easy and hard and not much in-between). When looking at your weekly load you need to factor in both the quality and volume of your running. Doing 1 kilometre of easy running is less load and less stress on your musculoskeletal system than 1km of interval running, and this relationship is non-linear. We are looking for a balance of hard and easy running that maximizes adaptation to training load without risk of injury. The much-extolled ratio of 80 easy and 20 hard that is practiced by most elite athletes delivers the greatest performance gains. A typical Harriers training week with a structured long run, Tuesday/Wednesday quality (strides/sprints/intervals) and easy runs follows this ratio. Most of us do enough quality as a proportion of our overall weekly mileage and we are more likely to be short on the easy component. Athletes running more than a 100km a week may need to do a greater number of intervals or add an additional day of quality to meet this ratio.
Easy running
You get the greatest benefit from high intensity running if you do most of the remainder of your running at low intensity. A high volume of easy running makes us less injury prone, and improves endurance and fatigue resistance. Most of us run our easy paced runs too fast particularly when running in a group. We may be able to run considerably further without increasing either the risk of injury or total training load simply by slowing our easy run pace down by just 15 to 20 seconds a kilometre.
Run progression
It takes years of cautious and consistent running to find the point where there is no further improvement with more volume. Outside the ranks of elite runners few of us reach our personal maximum running volume. For most of us increasing running volume is almost always an option for improvement. This should not happen overnight! In practice increasing your running volume from 40km to 100km a week should take 3 to 4 years. Ideally we want to increase our volume first by running more frequently as frequent stimuli maximizes soft tissue adaptation. After a period of running 5 to 7 times a week, then you can start increasing the volume of those runs.
Training cycle
The body is not able to absorb increasing training loads for more than 24 weeks at a stretch without risking injury and chronic fatigue. At the end of a training cycle we need to take 2 to 3 weeks off and recuperate with some easy volume and cross training. Once you start again on a new training cycle you will be further ahead than the start of the previous cycle.
Key Points
• Run your easy runs easy.
• Pay special attention to your easy run pace when running in a group.
• Be glacial slow about increasing your run volume by first running more frequently if you are not already running at least 4 times a week.
• Take a long-term view and set realistic race goals around your run progression.
• Work in training cycles to avoid injury and chronic fatigue.