Adding Variety In Your Training
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Running is a very repetitive motion. You are moving forward in the sagittal plane hopping on one foot at a time over and over. You take about 55,000 - 65,000 steps in a marathon so that's hopping on each foot 27,500 - 32,500 times! The human body is built to run but our current lifestyle is a lot more sedentary than our hunting and gathering ancestors. Improving our durability to keep us running strong requires variety in our training in intensity, distance, rest, movement and what we run on.
Intensity and Distance
Running one or two distances at the same pace isn't going to increase your fitness very well. You are building up some endurance but in order to adapt and grow as an athlete you need to provide a different stimulus. What it comes down to is you have a few different ways to create ATP to give you energy to run, let's narrow down to are aerobic (with oxygen) and anaerobic (without oxygen).
Running shorter and faster uses up ATP primarily from your anaerobic system and running slower and longer uses up ATP primarily from your aerobic system. It's important to note that these systems don't run exclusively and actually run concurrently. Running a variety of intensities and distances will use ATP from both sources improving your efficiency of these systems and the body's ability to clear the lactic acid waste product produced from your anaerobic ATP production.
As mentioned above, your energy systems work together even though one system might be more dominant than the others for a particular race. In a race such as a 5k you contribute about 85% from your aerobic system and 15% from your anaerobic. In a 10k your anaerobic contribution goes down to about 10% and in a marathon about 2.5%. In a mile it jumps up to about 20%. If you are training for a 5k and focusing only on mile repeats, easy runs and tempo runs then you are missing out on a chunk of training and not reaching your full potential. Variety looks like sprinting full out at 30 meters, climbing hills, VO2 Max workouts, long runs and everything in-between!
Movement
Running is a very repetitive motion in one plane and in one direction.Your body is a complex system and requires both your large muscles and small muscles to hold up to the job. If your large muscle groups aren't firing correctly or if you have developed imbalances maybe from previous injuries then a lot of stress falls onto your smaller muscle groups. Constant stress on those without correction will lead you down an injury cycle.
Squats and deadlifts are certainly important to build strength in our back, glutes and hamstrings but we can add in a variety of movement to target those smaller muscle groups. Switch up your squats and deadlifts to single leg movements. You will be able to target weaknesses in each leg and your ankles will work to stabilize your body as you balance on one foot. You can also add in lunges in a curtsy movement or out to the side to include movement in a lateral plane. Calf raises are great but you can really target your soleus muscle by doing a seated calf raise. Stand on a Bosu ball when doing arm raises or shoulder press exercises for added core and ankle stability. The options are limitless and you can get creative with these movements!
Foot Surface
There are ways to adjust our foot surface to provide a variety of different stimuli. The things we can adjust is what we wear on our feet and the surface we run on. If you aren't sponsored by a shoe company this one can seem expensive and seem unnecessary. The majority of runners run in one pair of shoes to about 400 miles and then move onto the next pair. Foot, big toe and ankle strength are often overlooked but are SO important!! Think of your stride, what's the last thing that pushes off the ground? Your big toe!
So how to add variety in your footwear - spend some time walking around barefoot. If you have plantar fascitis this might not be an option for you but if it's safe and comfortable then ditch the shoes. If I'm at a track, the weather is nice and the infield is clear then after some runs I will do a few strides barefoot in the grass. Another option is to purchase 2 pairs of shoes at a time and switch between them for longer runs or shorter runs. Switching between shoes not only adds a different stimulus but also can increase the longevity of the shoe by giving them a "rest" in-between runs for the shoe to "bounce back."
Rest
Four weeks off per year. That's the recommendation for us non professional runners. You need to plan four weeks off of running to stay healthy. If you've gotten into a year-round training schedule then you are probably a little "Type A" (I'm not attacking you, I'm one of you) and this might fall into the category of "not necessary" if you aren't currently injured. In a year, especially like this one, you tend to lose track of time because you don't have any goal races to break up the year so even though your training might not be as intense, you still need a break.
It takes about 2 weeks of doing nothing for your fitness to start to decrease. Don't panic, you will get it back. And time off doesn't have to mean time off from exercising - it just means don't go out for a run. A planned break will allow you time to try a new sport, focus on your nutrition or maybe hit the weight room differently. You can break it up into as small as four one-week periods or even one four-week period. The time might go by slowly but it's a heck of a lot better than taking 3-6 months off because you're nursing an injury.
Variety in training is necessary for health and performance benefits for EVERY type of runner. I've seen many athletes crash, burn and run themselves into the ground by neglecting one or multiple of these. Things like always pushing the pace, year-round high mileage, run streaking and not taking days off are a one-way street to low energy, injury, a decrease in performance or all of the above.
Have questions? Need help getting started? Reach out!
coach.n.fischer@gmail.com
www.runwithcoachfischer.com
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