Overdistance Training, or Take the Long Way Home
What is overdistance training? I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve been asked that in the past few months, and especially in the past few weeks when I’ve racked up some big mileage weekends. Granted, many of the queries have come in the form of, "Damn it, Vince, why do you run so f***ing far...".
My last long slow distance run, three weeks before the Vancouver Marathon, was 50K (30 miles). I’ve also done a long run of 45K (27.5 miles), a couple of 42Ks (26 miles), a couple of 40Ks (24.5 miles) and a 37K and a 35K this marathon training session.
The seed was first planted in yours truly by Jeff Galloway, www.jeffgalloway.com (a website you MUST visit) a few years ago, but I have since found many other endurance athletes and coaches who endorse the practice. In my early forties I found I could no longer train five or six days per week and recover adequately in time for my next training session. What to do?
I wanted to train fewer days per week, but not sacrifice any mileage. And I wanted to make sure I was progressing by continuing to stress my body and force adaptation, but still recover in time to do it all over again without the danger of overtraining. Overdistance training was the answer. Now I train four days a week religiously, with an occasional easy fifth day added to loosen up stiff or sore muscles. My weekly mileage has actually increased slightly, and last month, just before I began my taper, I was averaging 60-65 miles per week. The best part is that while I have pushed the edge of the envelope on occassion, I have not suffered any overtraining injuries in a couple of years and I basically train year round, doing two cycles in preparation for a spring marathon and a fall marathon.
The best definition of overdistance training I have come across has been in SERIOUS Training for Endurance Athletes by Rob Sleamaker and Ray Browning, p. 106,
“In every stage of the year, overdistance (OD) training comprises the greatest percentage of the total training volume. Overdistance does not mean overdoing it. Think of OD training as the foundation of your aerobic mansion; you want to build it so that it will last forever and support the expensive structure you’ll construct above it. OD sessions are long-duration, low-intensity sessions, usually lasting an hour and up to six to eight hours depending on your fitness and your plan.”
(paraphrasing the next part of the book here – the whole point of OD training is to facilitate the physiological changes that it incurs, mainly, increasing mitochondria at the cellular level and greatly increasing capilliarization – buy the book!)
“The intensity must be very low, about 55% to 65% of maximum, as described in Chapter 2. Any harder than this and you are not doing a OD workout. It is very common for endurance athletes to mistakenly train at intensities that average about 70% to 75% of maximum for the bulk of their training.”
(and the reasons NOT to do that, paraphrasing once again, is that it interferes with the very physiological changes that you want your body to make as it adapts to the OD training)
In his book, “Marathon, You can do it!”, Jeff Galloway dedicates Chapter 24 to older runners (and he calls any runners over the age of forty older) and the adaptations he feels they need to make in their training regimens.
“The long run pace
Run at a pace that is 3 minutes per mile slower than you could run the distance that day. Yes, this is a minute slower than younger runners, but it will give you the same endurance, based upon the mileage covered. I start my long runs 4 minutes slower than I could race the distance, and not only do I feel great at the end of the run, but also, in two or three days, I’m almost always recovered, even from a 26-miler.”
“Length
Increase the distance of the long run beyond 26 miles. The only purpose of the long run is build endurance. The slower you go the quicker you’ll recover. By having at least one run beyond 26 miles, you can boost your endurance limit, which will allow you to maintain a hard marathon pace for a longer time in the marathon itself. When you go the extra distance it is crucial to take the walk breaks and adhere to the pacing guidelines. For maximum performance, your longest run should be 28-29 miles. And I’ll say it again: you must go extra slowly on those extra-long runs.”
“Long runs can improve your speed
By increasing beyond 26 miles, you’ll build reserve endurance that will boost your performance in several ways.
* You’ll push your fatigue “wall” past 26 miles.
* You’ll have the strength and stamina to maintain a hard pace during the last 3 to 6 miles, when most competitive folks slow down.
* With reserve endurance, you can often get away with a few small pacing mistakes.
* Those who increase their longest run from 20 to 26 miles show a range of improvement of 10 to 20 minutes.
* Those who increase their longest run from 26 miles to 29 miles show a range of improvement of 5 to 10 minutes.
There in a nutshell, are the reasons why I do long slow overdistance runs that can at times seem like forever to complete. Case in point, last Sunday’s 50K (30 miles) took Patrick, Justin, Laura and myself five hours and fourteen minutes to complete. The great thing about that run of course was that I had three great friends to share the experience with. And I even believe that it was the longest distance that any of them had ever run, sort of an informal mini ultra marathon!
It will be interesting to see how many of the participants in the marathon clinic reach their time goals this year in Vancouver. From personal anecdotal experience and from being involved in half a dozen clinics to date, I would say that while nearly 100% of marathon clinic participants finish their marathon, far fewer than 20% actually accomplish their time goal. I am expecting more than 50% of the participants in my pace group to meet their time goals, which would be a first. And should that happen, I think it would be fair to say that the overdistance training they have been doing will have been crucial to their success.
And it's pretty hard not to like Jeff Galloway's prediction of a range of improvement of 15-30 minutes for those who venture out to thirty miles!
My last long slow distance run, three weeks before the Vancouver Marathon, was 50K (30 miles). I’ve also done a long run of 45K (27.5 miles), a couple of 42Ks (26 miles), a couple of 40Ks (24.5 miles) and a 37K and a 35K this marathon training session.
The seed was first planted in yours truly by Jeff Galloway, www.jeffgalloway.com (a website you MUST visit) a few years ago, but I have since found many other endurance athletes and coaches who endorse the practice. In my early forties I found I could no longer train five or six days per week and recover adequately in time for my next training session. What to do?
I wanted to train fewer days per week, but not sacrifice any mileage. And I wanted to make sure I was progressing by continuing to stress my body and force adaptation, but still recover in time to do it all over again without the danger of overtraining. Overdistance training was the answer. Now I train four days a week religiously, with an occasional easy fifth day added to loosen up stiff or sore muscles. My weekly mileage has actually increased slightly, and last month, just before I began my taper, I was averaging 60-65 miles per week. The best part is that while I have pushed the edge of the envelope on occassion, I have not suffered any overtraining injuries in a couple of years and I basically train year round, doing two cycles in preparation for a spring marathon and a fall marathon.
The best definition of overdistance training I have come across has been in SERIOUS Training for Endurance Athletes by Rob Sleamaker and Ray Browning, p. 106,
“In every stage of the year, overdistance (OD) training comprises the greatest percentage of the total training volume. Overdistance does not mean overdoing it. Think of OD training as the foundation of your aerobic mansion; you want to build it so that it will last forever and support the expensive structure you’ll construct above it. OD sessions are long-duration, low-intensity sessions, usually lasting an hour and up to six to eight hours depending on your fitness and your plan.”
(paraphrasing the next part of the book here – the whole point of OD training is to facilitate the physiological changes that it incurs, mainly, increasing mitochondria at the cellular level and greatly increasing capilliarization – buy the book!)
“The intensity must be very low, about 55% to 65% of maximum, as described in Chapter 2. Any harder than this and you are not doing a OD workout. It is very common for endurance athletes to mistakenly train at intensities that average about 70% to 75% of maximum for the bulk of their training.”
(and the reasons NOT to do that, paraphrasing once again, is that it interferes with the very physiological changes that you want your body to make as it adapts to the OD training)
In his book, “Marathon, You can do it!”, Jeff Galloway dedicates Chapter 24 to older runners (and he calls any runners over the age of forty older) and the adaptations he feels they need to make in their training regimens.
“The long run pace
Run at a pace that is 3 minutes per mile slower than you could run the distance that day. Yes, this is a minute slower than younger runners, but it will give you the same endurance, based upon the mileage covered. I start my long runs 4 minutes slower than I could race the distance, and not only do I feel great at the end of the run, but also, in two or three days, I’m almost always recovered, even from a 26-miler.”
“Length
Increase the distance of the long run beyond 26 miles. The only purpose of the long run is build endurance. The slower you go the quicker you’ll recover. By having at least one run beyond 26 miles, you can boost your endurance limit, which will allow you to maintain a hard marathon pace for a longer time in the marathon itself. When you go the extra distance it is crucial to take the walk breaks and adhere to the pacing guidelines. For maximum performance, your longest run should be 28-29 miles. And I’ll say it again: you must go extra slowly on those extra-long runs.”
“Long runs can improve your speed
By increasing beyond 26 miles, you’ll build reserve endurance that will boost your performance in several ways.
* You’ll push your fatigue “wall” past 26 miles.
* You’ll have the strength and stamina to maintain a hard pace during the last 3 to 6 miles, when most competitive folks slow down.
* With reserve endurance, you can often get away with a few small pacing mistakes.
* Those who increase their longest run from 20 to 26 miles show a range of improvement of 10 to 20 minutes.
* Those who increase their longest run from 26 miles to 29 miles show a range of improvement of 5 to 10 minutes.
There in a nutshell, are the reasons why I do long slow overdistance runs that can at times seem like forever to complete. Case in point, last Sunday’s 50K (30 miles) took Patrick, Justin, Laura and myself five hours and fourteen minutes to complete. The great thing about that run of course was that I had three great friends to share the experience with. And I even believe that it was the longest distance that any of them had ever run, sort of an informal mini ultra marathon!
It will be interesting to see how many of the participants in the marathon clinic reach their time goals this year in Vancouver. From personal anecdotal experience and from being involved in half a dozen clinics to date, I would say that while nearly 100% of marathon clinic participants finish their marathon, far fewer than 20% actually accomplish their time goal. I am expecting more than 50% of the participants in my pace group to meet their time goals, which would be a first. And should that happen, I think it would be fair to say that the overdistance training they have been doing will have been crucial to their success.
And it's pretty hard not to like Jeff Galloway's prediction of a range of improvement of 15-30 minutes for those who venture out to thirty miles!
posted by Vince Hemingson at 11:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home