Category: Workouts

When you decide to become more serious about running and look for a training plan or advice on how to improve, you get bombarded by terms you never heard of or that you don’t know what to do with.

Base run

Those are your bread-and-butter runs. I call them ‘just mileage’. They are meant to be on the shorter end of your range, up to mid-range and ran at your natural pace. I will admit it: these are my favorite and before I started marathon training, it was pretty much all I ever did. These days, those are mostly my commute runs. Main purpose of the base runs is to build your aerobic capacity. You also develop your endurance and running economy through your base runs. They are also your starting point for undertaking training plan.

Recovery run

Yes, I chose a picture of me running with my daughter (aka mini-me). I think it’s a pretty fair representation of recovery runs, since she keeps my pace slower and distance limited. When I am left to my own devices, I will get too ambitious and that recovery run will turn into more of a base run. These training runs usually follow particularly hard/long workouts and they are meant to be short and slow.

Most of us were led to believe that recovery runs help us recover faster by getting rid of lactic acid and accelerating muscle repair. However, it turns out that’s not how these workouts help. You are running in ‘pre-fatigued’ state, which promotes fitness gains. I actually just learned this. Good to know – I may actually start doing recovery runs on Monday after my long runs rather than just phoning it in.

Long run

If you are planning on an endurance race, hopefully you enjoy these. Long runs are meant to bring you to endurance level that will allow you to complete your race without running out of steam. For most races, you will probably want to get close or even over the distance you are planning to race. There is one notable exception to this: commonly, you don’t run more than 20 miles at a time, even when you are training for a marathon. To my surprise, when I was looking at Ironman training plans, they also capped running at 20 miles and even said you should not be doing actual marathons before your Ironman race. I am sure that for pros and people who do these all the time this may differ, but for us mere mortals, this is the rule. The reason behind the cap is relatively simple: running is a high impact sport and these kinds of distances take a toll on your body. You should not wear your body out before the race.

How to go about your long runs: they are meant to stretch your endurance, so naturally, you will be gradually increasing the distance (or pace). Once you have a solid base, you can start increasing distance by about a mile every week or two. Depending on your fitness level, your pace will be similar to that of your base runs or a bit slower. I have seen large number of variations on the long runs, with some including intervals, progressions and a number of other special elements. But the premise remains unchanged: not to run out of steam before you cross the finish line.

Progression run

I know this picture seems to have little to do with the progression runs, at least to majority of other people. But it is related to me, I swear. Progression runs are done usually over a distance you are comfortable with (although that’s not a requirement – it can be a part of your long run; I have been thinking about doing that actually). Your goal is to have negative splits, aka pick up pace in later stages of the run. This is a run with a main purpose of improving your stamina. It helps with getting faster without making you looks like you got run over by a truck. I can do these before work. Running intervals before work, on the other hand, tends too tired to be at my best all day.

How this picture relates: I struggle with it, but I always try to keep a steady pace until I hit the bridge over the Potomac and then go faster. It doesn’t always work well for me, since it’s when I hit uphills, but at the very least it’s an aspiration. And trying our best is all we can ask for, isn’t it?

Tempo run

I have a bizarre love for these workouts… If left to my own devices, I would probably do these only. I don’t do it, since I know perfectly well that we require variety in training for best results, but it doesn’t mean I can’t have my favorite workouts.

Tempo runs are about increasing your fatigue threshold and developing ability to run faster for extended periods of time. For a tempo run, you run at your lactate threshold, which is the hardest sustainable pace for you. If you are a fit runner, it’s a pace you can sustain for an hour, while for less fit runners, it’s for 20 minutes. The idea is to prolong time you can sustain higher pace. Yes, you may look like what I do on the above picture afterwards. But I do find those runs extremely satisfying and I will replace base and progression runs with these any time if nobody’s watching. I might end up there when I set out for a recovery run, too 😉

Fartlek

Another surprising picture? And yet again, it seems like it’s strangely appropriate to this type of a run to me. Fartlek is a speed workout, but not as structured as intervals. You mix some faster intervals into your run, with intention of building up your threshold. What differentiates fartlek from regular intervals is that the faster parts are not nicely planned and measured. And why running through DC and the National Mall comes to mind to me? Simple: because I run from a street crossing to street crossing, getting a rest at red lights. Since I know I will have to just stand there like a dummy, I sprint when I do get to run.

Intervals (sometimes called HIIT)

You will not catch me doing these on a track… They are usually done on a track, since it’s a flat, easy surface. However, I absolutely despise running on a track. At best, I will do my intervals on the road. That may increase my potential for injuries, but I just can’t run in circles… I’d rather do them on a treadmill (and even then only because I can watch movies on my phone).

But I digress. Intervals are bursts of speed over a pre-determined distance, alternating with slower periods. These workouts are what will make you faster by improving your running efficiency, giving you higher fatigue threshold and just making you able to move faster. They are indispensable to making you a faster runner. I would be interested though in hearing from somebody who genuinely enjoys these workouts.

Trail run

These are technically not usually listed, but I wanted to include them, since Meb was telling me how great it is to switch to running on trails. You can run most of your other workouts on trails, although intervals and fartlek probably wouldn’t be advisable. However, running on trails has a unique training benefit that makes me believe that it should be included in this list. They make your legs stronger by exposing them to quickly changing terrain. Your brain also needs to remain engaged, so you don’t hurt yourself by stepping wrong. Meb told me that trail practices make running in a road race appear easier and, therefore, you end up faster.

Hills repeats

Pictures never quite capture steepness of a hill, do they… Believe me, this is actually a good training hill on my run.

So here is how this work: find a serious hill, start at the bottom and run to the top. Turn around, make your way down at a slower pace and then back up that hill. Rinse and repeat… It will build up your aerobic power, endurance and pain threshold (because there will be pain if you do it right). Also, if you choose a hilly marathon, like me (Baltimore – no huge climbs, but a lot of short uphill bursts), it will help you make it to the end of the race. And if for no other reason: they will add some variety to your training. I can’t see people loving it any more than intervals, but hill repeats will provide you at least with a sense of pride when you are on top of that hill. I know it’s a small consolation, but sometimes we don’t need much to keep going…

Conclusion

I hope this introduction to running training lingo will be helpful. At the very least, it should help you sound like a member of the in crowd when talking to other runners over drinks. And, of course, understand what training plans (either found online or given to you by a coach or a friend) mean. Just my little contribution to making you feel like the insider in the world of amateur athletes 😉 Now go and conquer the world! The road is waiting for you and your shoes!

I am horribly slow at biking on hills. Like in: I swear that turtle I passed on the flat just passed me on a hill slow. And yes, I absolutely hate them. Unfortunately, unless you bike only on the indoor trainer, you will encounter some hills sooner or later. I also took a look at the bike course on Ironman Gdynia and here is what I saw:

Clearly, there will be hills out there for me to conquer (although I am grateful for the descent on the last few miles). That initial ascent made me obsessed with thoughts of biking on hills and improving, so I did some research on the subject and here is what I found out.

Technique for climbing

There was lot of articles out there regarding how to attack a hill. One of my favorites was ‘think light’. It sounded a lot like ‘think thin’ 😆. But ok, I can probably do that.

I saw quite a few arguments on whether you should be sitting or standing on the bike and the bottom line appears to be that it’s personal preference. I actually have one thing to add to this argument based on personal experience: when you are peddling very hard on an uphill for long time, it may start hurting your lower back. Standing up for a minute relieves that tension and helps with the pain. Having said that, I hate standing up on a bike, but after a while, I have to stretch my back out.

Another interesting point I saw and decided I will take under advisement: top off fluids and food before you start climbing. I agree that it’s hard to reach for your bottle when you are fighting a hill and sometimes, you may not have extra energy to divert to eating and drinking while climbing. Also: in the event it makes you stop, getting started on an uphill is hard. It’s better to avoid it.

Losing weight

Yes, everybody will tell you that ascents are easier if you are lighter. However, this piece of advice is only sort of helpful in my opinion. First off, not everybody has much weight to lose. Personally, I have been gaining muscle weight as fast as I have been losing fat and I don’t even have that much fat to lose to begin with – at my height, it’s really easy to change percentage significantly without changing number of pounds significantly. Second: it doesn’t really make you stronger. It just makes the ascents easier because you are carrying less weight. Which brings me to the key issue I have with this piece of advice when it comes to my prep for Ironman 70.3 Gdynia: ascent is in the beginning, which means I will be still carrying all the weight associated with carb loading for the race. So yes, I will work on losing some pounds, but I need more ideas on how to actually improve my fitness.

Riding on hills

Practice makes perfect 😆. Not quite what I had in mind, but it’s hard to argue against this: if you want to get better at riding on hills, you need to ride on hills. As you can see from the picture above, I started doing that. However, it’s a bit of a drive from my house and I can only do it once every two weeks. Not all of us have easy access to serious hills. We do what we can and then we look for additional ideas on other training.

Indoor trainer

Not exactly glamorous, but easily accessible to most… There is also a stationary bike at a gym (or home – I know people who have Peloton or other stuff like that). So luckily for me, I got some advice from my trainer, Diana and read online advice on how to use an indoor trainer to get stronger on hills. I guess it’s like with treadmill: it won’t replace the road, but there are uses for it. There was a couple of training drills that got my attention.

Simulating an incline

You can shift into harder gear and tighten the setup (or whatever makes it harder to pedal on your bike) and ride like that. Interesting piece of advice I saw somewhere along the way: if you are pretending you are riding uphill, raise your front wheel. It impacts your positioning on the bike and can change how you use your muscle. I have to admit that I wouldn’t have ever thought about it, but once I saw it, I thought ‘duh!’ So this is another way of practicing riding on hills: just create one at home

Intervals

I can already hear the groans… I doubt there are many fans of intervals out there. We are used to the speed intervals, where you go all out for predetermined amount of time or distance and then you slow down, just to repeat it shortly thereafter. Climb intervals aren’t that different. You repeat alternating high intensity periods with regular riding. Except in this case, the intervals come from shifting into more difficult gears. It’s a good workout, believe me – I took to doing it as part of my interval sessions (the other part is speed intervals). I am not quite sure yet if it has worked for me, but let’s just say that I haven’t given up and walked on any hills yet this season (it has happened in the past).

Single leg peddling

It’s exactly what it sounds like and it’s taking advantage of the fact that you won’t crash on an indoor trainer. You clip only one leg in at a time and peddle for several revolutions and then switch legs. It helps you build up muscle and work on your technique. I will be testing this tomorrow, so wish me luck…

Strength workouts

This is what I was looking for! Actual strength exercises I could do, so I wouldn’t embarrass myself on a bike. Somehow I am less self-conscious about this stuff at the gym than on a bike path. Or it may be my competitive side: I hate when people pass me on the bike path and working out at the gym allows me to improve without seeing people pass me. Either way, here are some exercises for my quads and abductors Diana gave me during our last session when I asked how to get stronger:

We all know that pre-workout warm up is important. It increases your heart rate and blood circulation slowly. When you are properly warmed up before you start your workout, you can get more from the exercise and you decrease your risk of injury. Here is my YouTube video, followed by description of each of the exercises.

High knees

This is a quick way to get your heart going. It engages your core and hamstrings. You can do high knees in place or while moving forward. It looks like a run, you just make sure to pull up your knees to your chest.

Butt kicks

Second exercise helping you with increasing heart rate, butt kicks will also warm up your legs and stretch your hamstrings. Like high knees, you can do it running in place or over a distance. Just do your best to kick you own a$$ 😉

Arm circles

Start with small arm circles to warm up your arms, shoulders, back and biceps. Performing this stretch will help you ease into the next one, which is a bit more challenging. Stand with your legs at about shoulder width and stretch out your arms to the sides, palm downs. Make small circles, first in one direction, then in the opposite direction.

Shoulders stretch

To my surprise, I have really enjoy this one. It makes my shoulders and upper back feel good! It starts a lot like arm circles, but you will need a resistance band. Hold it out with a little bit of tension at waist height. Then slowly move it above your head and then along your back. I tend to adjust how I hold the band a little during my first stretch to make sure that I am stretching, but also not hurting myself. Move your arms as slowly as you can – it will help you not to hurt yourself. If you let the band control your movement, it’s easy to hurt yourself.

Scorpion stretch

This stretch helps with the lower back. As you can probably guess from my article about back pain from cycling, I occasionally have issues with my lower back. This stretch is great for it! Lay down on the ground, face down and stretch your arms out. Pick up your foot and touch the ground on the other side of your body. Try to keep your hips on the ground as much as you can. Then repeat on the other side. Scorpion stretch is probably the most effective lower back stretch I have ever tried!

Thoracic spine stretch

Quite a name… But it means stretching part of your spine by your rib cage. I try to avoid having too many props for my workouts, but sometimes they are unavoidable. You need a rod of some sort for this one. I tend to use stick from a tall broom or a ski pole (yeah, I am creative like that), although using a weighted bar makes it more of a workout, not just a stretch. Lay down on the ground, face down with arms stretched out forward, holding the rod. Keep one arm down and move the other one up and over to the other side, until your shoulder blade touches the ground (or comes close to it – how far you get depends on how well stretched you are). Like with the other spine stretch, try to keep your hips on the ground as much as you can.

Happy stretching and enjoy your workouts!

My daughter decided to teach me some yoga. Her stretches are pretty good. Check them out!