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Run Distance Practices
There are several objectives we may have for run training sessions. We prefer to call these sessions ‘practices’ because this implies that there is skill involved and skills need to be practice and can always be improved. Even when the session is focused on physical performance of some kind, like going a certain pace, skill still plays a central role in making that performance possible with least energy cost and risk of injury.
There are two kinds of strength:
- being able to handle more loading (like running up a steeper hill)
- being able to handle the load for longer duration (like running farther)
In running, increasing distance will require your muscles to get stronger in that latter way. The muscles and metabolism will be adapting to handle work for a longer period of time before resting. The neuromuscular system will be getting better at maintaining best form over that time as well.
The guidance below is aimed primarily at those who are following the 5K Run Training Plan….
Run Distance Practice
On these days you are going to run in your comfortable aerobic range of effort, and sustain it for longer distances. The distances assigned are suggested minimum, with respect to those who have limited time for workouts. You may extend these runs longer if you like, but gradually increase the distances by less than 10% each week from what you are normally used to running.
The effort level should be ‘comfortable’ in the sense that you feel like you could run at this pace 1 hour or more. To test that you are running at the appropriate aerobic level, breath only through your nose for a few minutes – if you can get enough respiration that way, you know your body is working enough but not too much.
In Stage 2 of the 5K Run Training Program you may run on flat ground mostly. In Stage 3 the assignment will alternate between running on flats, running on hilly terrain, and inserting sprints into the long run. These will challenge you to work harder for small segments then recover and resume your long distance pace.
As the long run progresses you may notice some fatigue in the body and you feel an urge to let your form deteriorate a little. Before this, you may become aware that your attention has grown weak or distracted before your form deteriorates. This is the crucial awareness – attention usually degrades before form does. This lets you know your attention is weaker than neural control.
However, it may be that you are keeping attention on form well, but the body is fatiguing and it is simply harder to make the body hold form as intended. This lets you know that neural control is weaker than attention. In either scenario, when you do these longer runs, when you get to this limit, this is where the most productive part of your neural training will occur. Work hard to extend your attention or your control over form a bit longer than you have before and this will provoke the growth you need.